Mary doesn’t regret stopping it – even though cancer returned

MARY HUCKLE, 53, a personal trainer and mother-of-three from Enfield, North London, was diagnosed in August 2007 with an aggressive form of breast cancer. She says: ‘I have small breasts and the lump was found behind my nipple, so I had no choice but to have a mastectomy. ‘After six months of chemo, I started taking tamoxifen in 2008. I was on it for five years. My decision to come off it was made when it was suggested it would be even better to take it for ten years.

‘The side effects were unbearable. I woke up every morning with a foggy head and awful headache.

‘There was joint pain in the wrist and knees. Then I started getting back pain too.

‘I used to be a Pilates teacher – I know how to look after my body and this wasn’t normal for me.

‘When I stopped taking the drug, the headaches and brain fog went immediately.

‘As the drug was still in my system, it took a while for the joint pain to go. I’ve got secondary cancer now and take an oral chemo drug and a hormone inhibitor – but not tamoxifen.

‘The second cancer was diagnosed around the same time I stopped tamoxifen.

‘My oncologist supported me in that decision and said it was a coincidence. Although the drug reduces the risk of recurrence, it doesn’t eliminate it.

‘Even today, I have no regrets about stopping it.

‘I understand why so many women come off it. My quality of life is so much better. As soon as I ditched tamoxifen, I got “me” back.’