At first I thought, 'Why me?' But then I stopped and thought, 'Why not me?'
"There is life after cancer"
barbara law
BARBARA LAW simply wouldn't be here were it not for the skill of Action Cancer's staff. Ever since she was 46 she had made the annual trip to Action Cancer. It was usually a very relaxed affair, and like the vast majority of women, there was nothing abnormal to be found. But in 1994, when she was 51, the mammogram showed up a tiny lump. She was referred to hospital and had the lump removed. It was cancerous, so 6 weeks of radiotherapy followed. "I'm so lucky," Barbara told me "I couldn't feel the lump, and the doctor told me it was actually too small to feel. Others might have missed it, but Action Cancer picked it up early. That saved my life, or at the very least, saved me from much more serious surgery. Barbara has been clear of cancer since her lumpectomy and radiotherapy seven years ago and is continuing to do very well. I'm so glad the Action Cancer service is there and that people support it."
andee mckeown
ANDEE McKEOWN is the lively one of our group. She never seems to stand still. Years and years ago Andee used to help fundraise for her local Action Cancer group. "Although I have a family history of breast cancer, that's not why I helped. It just seemed like a good thing to do." Andee's cancer was diagnosed in 1993, when she was 43, and because of her family history she elected to have a radical mastectomy, removing both breasts to prevent the cancer spreading. "That was my decision," she says, and it worked out really well. The staff at the City Hospital were great, they made it all so easy to take." Now, Andee works four hours a week as a volunteer on the reception desk at Action Cancer House. "It's a wonderful charity," says Andee, "I like the fact that they work in a preventative manner. And recently they've started to work on men's cancers too - prostrate and testicular. That impresses me because men ignore these things."
joyce purce
JOYCE PURCE is 73 but I think you'd never guess it. She was 68 when she was diagnosed - a sore arm when she was driving the car made her realize there was something wrong. She says, "You're lucky," the surgeon told me, "We've got it in time." "I'm unlucky to have it all," I told him. However, after surgery and radiotherapy, Joyce has beaten cancer. "I don't even want to think about it now," she says. "I design hats, I play golf, I just get on with my life." And then there's me.
joanne magee
JOANNE MAGEE I'm 29. I found a lump, had it checked out, and then, one Friday in February this year, I was told I had cancer. I felt awful all week-end - really sick. I thought it was just the cancer, or the shock of it all, then I thought, 'Could I be?.... no, I couldn't, I just couldn't be pregnant.' I found out the following Tuesday that I was. I thought, 'What'll I do?', but the doctor was just great. He explained that they would have to remove my breast and some lymph nodes. If they showed any cancer - and four did - there would have to be chemotherapy. I never thought they could give that when you're pregnant, but they can. In fact, it only adds about 2% to the risk of anything going wrong. My husband has been great too, especially looking after our little girl, who is two and a half. Everybody says I'm marvelous - in fact on the day we made the TV advertisement and had these pictures taken they all made a real fuss of me. That was nice, but I'm nothing special. You just have to get on with it. Now I feel fine. By the time you read this, the baby will be born, and I'll soon be starting on some more chemotherapy. But I feel really lucky that there were only four lymph nodes involved. If it hadn't been caught in time, that's when I'd have had a real problem. I'm fine now, it could have been so much worse.
lynda tavakoli
LYNDA TAVAKOLI who is 42, faced a different type of challenge when she found she had breast cancer six years ago. As well as two children, aged three and five, Lynda and her husband Siamak were in the midst of moving back to Northern Ireland at the time. In fact Lynda's treatment started in Sheffield, where they used to live, and ended here in Belfast. "It was very disturbing to find I had a life threatening illness," Lynda says. "The possibility loomed that Ben and Farah could lose their mother, and Siamak his wife. But it didn't happen, because my cancer was detected early enough to treat."
ida fleming
IDA FLEMING who was 63 when she was diagnosed in 1993. Ida's just so full of life. She ran her won business for many years - her last business was a childrens' wear shop called Klassy Kids. Typically, she wasn't going to lie down when she had cancer. She went for her check up on a Thursday, when the lump was found. By the next Monday she was in hospital, she had her operation on the Wednesday, she left hospital the next Monday, and by that Thursday she was caravanning. A week later, she was back at her swimming classes. Now, she says she is 'as healthy as anything'. But she said two things to me which sum up everything I'm trying to tell you. She said, "At first I thought, 'Why me?' But then I stopped and thought, 'Why not me?'" And that's right. Cancer can happen to any woman- look at the six of us, all ages, all types. Then there's the second thing she said, "There is life after cancer." We're proof of that too. But that depends on early detection. If our cancers hadn't been found in time, we wouldn't be here.