We beat disease together
A mother and daughter who both survived breast cancer are taking to the catwalk together in a fundraising fashion show.
Angela Jones, 60, from midlothian, was diagnosed in 2021. Prior to Angela’s diagnosis, her 32-year-old daughter mary had found a lump in her own breast.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, and in Scotland about 4800 women and 30 men are diagnosed with it every year.
Doctors told mary twice her lump was a cyst. Yet, when she went for a scan following her mum’s diagnosis, they confirmed she also had breast cancer.
mary was living in Kenya when her mum was diagnosed. She said: “I got the lump checked again and was sent for a scan. the scan showed two cysts and a dark mass hiding behind them.
“With mum about to start treatment, I didn’t tell my parents about my scan as I didn’t want to worry them. But when I was sent for a biopsy, I thought it was time to let them know.
“A week later, as my mum’s treatment was being planned, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Both our worlds were thrown upside down and set on fire.”
Angela struggled to support her daughter while dealing with her own illness. She said: “mary’s diagnosis came as more of a shock to me than my own.
“It was unbelievable to me that my beautiful daughter could have breast cancer. I could reason with my own diagnosis but not mary’s.
“As her mum, I wanted to take her cancer into my other breast, so she could get on with her life. I felt like I’d lived so much of my life, married with a family, but this should not be happening to mary. It was difficult being both a cancer patient and the mother of a cancer patient. I wanted to get on a plane and go to her.”
mary moved back to Scotland and ended up being treated by the same oncologist and surgeon as Angela.
Now their treatments are behind them, the mother and daughter are joining 22 other women in the Show by Breast Cancer Now.
Angela said: “It feels like not just a privilege to take part in the Show, but to be with all of the other models celebrating how far we have all come living with and beyond breast cancer and remembering those who have died from the disease.” the Show, on April 20, is being streamed: www.breastcancernow.org/theshowlondon