Dog lover and her Yorkshire terrier BOTH fighting same type of cancer
THEY have shared many an enjoyable walk in the park over the years.
Now Sheila Walker and her Yorkshire terrier, Banna, are on the same journey of survival.
The 60-year-old is fighting cancer in the same areas of her body as her pet – and they are helping each other to battle through it.
Both of them require constant medical attention and treatment for the disease in their spines and chests.
Banna’s tumours have been removed by surgery and she is recovering, although she needs more tests. However, her owner’s cancer is incurable.
Describing eight-year-old Banna as her best friend, Miss Walker said: ‘She’s my world. We’re going to do this together. We have good days and bad days, but we’re always there for each other.
‘She has given me the strength to fight this horrendous disease.
‘She is the reason I am fighting it. I can’t imagine life without her.’
Miss Walker, from Leeds, was diagnosed in 2015, just a year before Banna.
She went to her doctor after losing a lot of weight and suffering agonising pain in her spine.
Tests showed she had cancer in her spine which had spread from her right breast. Previously active, she was confined to a wheelchair.
Miss Walker said: ‘I was a total wreck. There was so much wrong with me. I looked and felt like a 90-year-old woman. I was fit until then and this just knocked me sideways. I was unable to walk.’
After being treated with drugs, she started to feel better but had to stop working at her boutique in Harrogate, where she sold lingerie and cruise wear.
Around that time Banna started to feel unwell too, and – mirroring Miss Walker’s condition – was later diagnosed with cancer in the right side of her
‘She’s given me the strength to fight’
body and her spine. The disease was later also found to have spread to the dog’s legs, but the tumours were removed.
After one round of surgery, Banna could not walk upstairs, so Miss Walker brought her own bedding down to sleep on the floor by the Yorkie for a couple of nights.
She said: ‘Both of our battles are ongoing. We both still have the disease. I make sure I check her every day to see if there are any lumps. The bond we have is amazing.’
Miss Walker is taking part in a drug trial organised by the National Institute for Health Research, under the care of Professor Chris Twelves, consultant in clinical oncology at Leeds Teaching Hospitals
A record 870,000 people have taken part in the institute’s medical trials in 2018-19, and its studies are delivered at every NHS trust in the country.
Miss Walker said she is pleased with how the trial has gone and would urge others to take part.
She is on her eighth cycle of a trial for breast cancer to test the effectiveness of a combination of oral chemotherapy and injectable radiotherapy.
Miss Walker said: ‘Taking part in research has been amazing.
‘If what I have been through can help just one other person, then to be part of it has been worth it. I’m willing to give anything a go.’
She said Banna had made her ongoing health struggles less of a burden, adding: ‘It’s really weird that we are so close and connected.
‘It feels like she is carrying some of my disease to take some of the pain and the pressure from me.
‘It’s quite strange that we’re on exactly the same journey together. She’s my life.’