Tracey’s Story

I loved my job, but it was really hard working though the pandemic, so when my friend Kayleigh asked me to join her on holiday to Magaluf I had no hesitation. It was the best holiday ever, we had so much fun. It was a typical girls holiday and we were of course sharing a room. On the second day of our holiday, as we were getting changed into our bikini’s, she pulled me aside and told me that she had noticed something odd about one of my breasts, she said that it just didn’t look normal. Naturally, as soon as I got home, I went straight to an out of hours doctor to get checked and he immediately sent me to the breast clinic.

There I had a mammogram and an ultrasound. They also told me they wanted to do a biopsy and that it would be performed a week later. When the results came back, they said I did have breast cancer after all and it was Grade 2, it was also in both breasts. It had spread to my lymph nodes too, so I started chemotherapy treatment almost immediately.

Not long after, I was sent for another breast MRI and 2 weeks later they told me it had also spread to my sternum and spine. They also told me my cancer was stage 4 and now incurable. I felt so angry because it was now October and I had originally queried the lump way back in February. Not only was I angry with my GP, I was angry with myself for not being persistent and getting a second opinion at the time.

I was in shock, all could think about was my husband Ben and my two lovely boys Nathan who was then 15 and Charlie who was 9.

But I’m not going to sit around and be sad all the time, I am determined to live my life as well as I can, for as long as I can. Some days are harder than others when I think about my uncertain future but I really try not to let in get me down.