Save a life: be alert to symptoms

Concerned about breast cancer or BRCA genes? Meet others experiencing the same at a group run by Chai

NATIONAL BREAST Cancer Awareness Month has provided an opportunity to alert more people to the importance of early detection of breast cancer. This year Chai Cancer Care launched a series of talks under the BFF (Breast Friends Forever) banner. The talks combine a no-holdsbarred update on breast health, covering issues such as how to examine breasts, signs and symptoms to look

for, demystifying statistics, diagnosis, treatment options and decisions related to the BRCA gene.

Joanna Franks, consultant breast and oncoplastic surgeon at University College London Hospital, led the first two talks. “What I hear a lot is that people are nervous to examine themselves because they are worried about what they might find,” she says. “But to put it into perspective, if 20 people come to my breast clinic, 19 will go home having been told that they are absolutely fine.”

Chai runs supportive groups for people affected by a breast cancer diagnosis. Breast Buddies is for those who have breast cancer and there is a BRCA support group for people who have found they are carriers of the BRCA 1 or 2 gene. Mutations in these genes are strongly linked to an increased chance of breast or ovarian cancer in women and breast and prostate cancer in men.

Barbara Prager is a senior counsellor and BRCA support group co-facilitator. “The group lets clients explore their feelings and emotional responses to a positive test result and to hear from others,” she says. “Knowing you are not alone is so important because, even with a supportive family, the impact of a positive result can be very isolating. The group offers comfort, taking you out of that lonely place.”

The group meets every three weeks and clients can come at any point in their BRCA journey.

Contact Jo Awad, 0208 202 2211 or see chaicancer.org for BRCA support. One-toone counselling is also available

CAROL GINNELLY is a fit and active 49-year-old mother of two who did not smoke, drank moderately and took plenty of exercise. But when she noticed a slight discharge from her left breast she went straight to her GP.

It was the start of a long and often emotional journey for Ginnelly that resulted in her having a mastectomy — but her prompt action could also have saved her life.

“At first it was thought I might have picked up an infection — I had just been on holiday in Vietnam — and I was given antibiotics. But two months later, the discharge returned and so it was back to my doctor and the tests began,” she says.

She had a mammogram, ultrasound and a biopsy but results were inconclusive. It was the same story following a wire-guided biopsy. But an MRI scan then showed cell activity in her breast and a vacuum biopsy pointed to DCIS