A mother has opened up about how she ignored a lump in her breast, saying she was too ‘busy’ to have it checked, that led to her terminal cancer.
Mum-of-three Melissa Procter, 39, told Daily Mail Australia that one morning three years ago, when she was in the shower, she felt a lump in her armpit. Since then, her life changed forever.
“I thought it would go away, that I was getting the flu or something.
“I had an eight-month-old and two other young children, I was busy. So I just left it,” she said.
However, after a couple of weeks, Ms Procter noticed that the lump got bigger and it didn’t go away as she thought. So, she went to her GP, who referred her for a mammogram. Shortly after, she had an ultrasound and biopsy, which confirmed the worst: she had breast cancer.
The year that followed was filled with different life-changing treatments: six rounds of ‘hardcore’ chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and reconstruction, and then radiotherapy. But despite these, Ms Procter said that it was her children who became her strength during this time.
“It was incredibly hard, especially as a mum, because the work doesn’t stop. To be stuck in hospital is really hard.
“But then you come home and you’ve got these beautiful faces of your children. Psychologically they helped me more than everything else,” she said.
Thankfully, after all the treatments, the cancer was gone and Ms Procter was in remission. She thought everything would turn out for the better until September last year, when she started to get shooting pains in her leg. She said that by early November, she went to the GP, who sent her for a scan.
The scan revealed the worst again: Ms Procter had secondary cancer in her bones. It was all in her right side, from her femur through to her spine, shoulder, arm, and the base of her skull.
The cancer is stage four, and terminal.
Now, as Ms Procter is on a trial of new drugs to treat the cancer, and will have between two and ten years depending on the effectiveness of the treatment, she said that there is still something bittersweet in everything that happened.
“My biggest fear is not being able to see my sons grow up, but in a way the diagnosis is good.
“I’m excited, every day I wake up reinvigorated with life. Some people get depressed but for me it’s the opposite,” she said.
Because of the limited time Ms Procter will have with her family, they have made a bucket list of experiences they want to have before she leaves them. Her sister, Amanda, has created a Go Fund Me page to help raise money not only for Ms Procter’s medical costs, but to help her have those experiences.
As part of the bucket list, Ms Procter hopes to take her sons Huon, seven, Mitchum, five, and Harvey, three, to Disneyland. They’re also hoping to travel to the UK, where Ms Procter has some family, and just spend as much time together as possible.
“My future is uncertain, but mine is a known uncertainty,” she said.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk
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