On 05 October 2006 at the age of 30, I got sent to have a mammogram at the super clinic. My partner & I were there for 3 hours while they did different tests. Then the news came at 4.48pm that I had breast cancer. I was in shock as no one in my family has ever had breast cancer. My first thought went to my partner Kevan & children, Brady, 12 & Jayden, 8. I felt straight away that I will beat this & I had to help my family to cope. It was extremely hard for my mum. It doesn’t happen to your child.

They said that I had Infiltrating ductal cancer.

The doctors told me that my tumor was about 13cm in size.

I had to do four sessions of chemotherapy to shrink the tumor.  On the 22 December Kevan & I had our normal check up at the oncology department.  At this meeting Doctor Porter told us that I was HER 2 positive.  This just made my heart break.  I could handle breast cancer but being HER 2 positive meant I had a long road ahead, as I knew I had to fundraise about $85,000.00 to help me survive.

I came back to work after hearing that news and celebrated the last day of work before my Christmas holidays. 

On the 28 December I started fundraising, while I was on my second dose of Chemo & working full time. I started getting the word out there. I did an article in the local news paper. We are very well known in our area. Many people went to my parents business to drop off money, food, and raffles & Ideas to fundraise. My mum got stopped and given a cheque of $500. I just couldn’t believe the help that our community has given to us.

I had surgery on the 21 Feb.  They removed an 8.5 cm tumor, they also found another turmour which was 6cm.  They took out 13 lymph nodes and 7 of those had cancer.

I remember waking up from surgery thinking IT’S GONE!! The cancer is off my body.  I had a big cry in the recovery room, I felt I could do it there as I had been so strong for my family and could grieve on my own.  I remembered feeling that, I’m only 30 and I have no breast. I remembered that this was just the beginning. I needed to feel strong again.

I came out of hospital & the next day my whole family went down to our local Repco and they did a BIG car wash. They sat me down on a chair and I watched all these people washing cars for me & I still had all the tubes in. They raised $1600 that day.

I had another four sessions of chemo. I had a couple of half days off work as this was nasty.

I finished all my treatment on the 18 July 2008. It really took its toll traveling from Auckland to Palmerston North every 3 weeks but it was worth it.  Richard & Cheryl are the most amazing people you will ever meet. Richard made me feel safe & kept me informed of everything. I miss the feeling of being safe. It’s hard to start your life again after nearly 2 years of treatment. It’s like walking into a whole new world.

I love helping people. I talk to other breast cancer survivors & try to make them smile. I have learnt that the small’s things don’t faze me anymore. I live life to the fullest.  I want to bury my mother; I don’t want her to bury me.

I could never quite thank everyone enough for all their hard work fundraising and true kindness. If it had not been for all the great people in my life I would not be here today – so thank you