I was shocked when they told me I had breast cancer
EARLY SCAN SAVES LIFE OF MUM-OF-TWO
A MUM-OF-TWO who was given a routine mammogram a year earlier than she expected has spoken out after the scan revealed a cancerous lump – hidden so deep it was not noticeable by touch.
Sheelagh Davidson, 57, said she wasn’t worried when she went for the scan, but was ‘shocked’ when she was told she had stage two breast cancer after experiencing no symptoms.
The retired school secretary, who lives in Manchester with husband, Stuart, says she was ‘very lucky’ to be invited for the scan a year earlier than expected after moving from Lincoln. She now wants to raise awareness to help other women be diagnosed sooner.
Sheelagh said she hadn’t noticed anything was wrong when she went for the scan and didn’t feel alarmed even when she received a call to attend an appointment for her results.
“I’m naturally a very optimistic person so I just thought it’d be nothing, something simple that had flagged up,” she said. “So when they told me I had stage two breast cancer, I was very shocked.”
The lump found in Sheelagh’s left breast was deep and not noticeable to touch and would not have been picked up so quickly had she not been invited for her scan a year early.
She said: “A mammogram would have been the only way this could have been found, so I was very lucky that I had ended up having my scan early.” Sheelagh underwent a lumpectomy to remove the cancerous lump from her left breast before starting chemotherapy. She had three rounds of three-weekly chemotherapy and then weekly treatment for nine weeks, before undergoing three weeks of radiotherapy as a precaution. “There had been no sign of cancer since the surgery but the additional treatment gave me some peace of mind that it was wasn’t coming back, she said”
When her radiotherapy treatment ended in March 2019, Sheelagh was given the all-clear. She now campaigns to raise awareness of breast cancer and encourage women to get checked often and early.
“I really wanted to do something good and give back in some way,” she said. “I volunteered to help with tea and coffee mornings at The Nightingale Centre in Wythenshawe Hospital and, in 2019, the charity had a double decker bus which I helped out on to spread awareness.” During lockdown, Sheelagh took part in a virtual walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats and this year she completed the Manchester Half Marathon to raise money for Prevent Breast Cancer.
To help spread her message further, Sheelagh has joined Prevent Breast Cancer’s BooBee campaign and signed up to be a BooBee ambassador. The BooBees are 100 women who have been affected by breast cancer, who are joining together to spread awareness and fundraise for a future without breast cancer across Greater Manchester.
I was very lucky I ended up having my scan so early Sheelagh Davidson