I’m doing the thing I said I’d never do again
Please support me
“Just ten years ago, this diagnosis would have been a death sentence.”
That’s what one oncologist told me after my diagnosis of stage 3, grade 3, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in January 2021. I didn’t know then, but certainly know now, that TNBC tends to be more aggressive and comes with a higher risk of recurrence, so has the highest mortality rate of all types of breast cancer - accounting for just 10-15% of cases, but 30-40% of deaths. And grade 3 is the fastest-growing type so, with two separate tumours in my right breast, and having already spread to the lymph nodes, I survived breast cancer by the skin of my teeth.
I was saved by advances in treatment thanks to scientists at the forefront of breast cancer research - such as those working at the Breast Cancer Now research unit at King's College London, which has just celebrated its 25th year. When the centre opened in 1999, around 80% of women survived breast cancer for five or more years. This number has now increased to 88%.
Improvements in treatment mean that, not only are those with metastatic breast cancer living longer, but also more of us are able to have curative treatment. Once it’s metastasised, the prognosis for grade 3 TNBC is bleak. Four and a half years since my diagnosis, without recent breakthroughs in treatment, my kids would have lost their mum by now.
Does this build-up sound like I’m about to ask you for money? Well, yes, I am.
Two years ago, I ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon for Maggie’s, an organisation that helped me so much when I was going through chemotherapy. I raised over £1500, but swore I’d never do it again. I’m not a natural runner, and find the whole business extremely gruelling. In fact, I made my husband promise to talk me out of it if ever I suggested doing it again.
BUT what with the cost of living crisis, online anti-science rhetoric and fundraising fatigue, charities like Breast Cancer Now need your support more than ever.
Despite Jonathan’s (admittedly half-hearted) attempt to remind me of what I said to him after the last one, I’m doing it again, and I need your support.
(I’m never doing another organised run again after this - and this time I mean it.)
With nearly 57,000 people diagnosed with breast cancer every year in the UK, and 1 in 7 women receiving a diagnosis in their lifetime, this could affect any of us.
At the Breast Cancer Now research unit, Dr Rachael Natrajan is working on targeting genes that drive treatment-resistant breast cancer. Meanwhile, at Queen’s University Belfast, Breast Cancer Now funding is helping Dr Niamh Buckley use mRNA vaccine technology to develop a way to stimulate the immune system to fight TNBC, potentially even creating a vaccine to treat (and maybe one day prevent) the disease.
This work takes time, and money.
Every year, over 11,500 people die of breast cancer in the UK. But you can help these amazing scientists get the funding they need to bring that number down.
Thank you ❤️
This week I’m…
Learning about the future of health tech with Hacking Humanity by Lara Lewington
Hoping to carve out some time amid the end-of-term overwhelm to binge Too Much on Netflix, starring Megan Stalter and Will Sharpe
Running, I guess? Please sponsor me!
