‘Why I intend to fight breast cancer with all the strength I can muster’

Rachelle Thompson, 51, from Bangor, found herself battling breast cancer during the Covid lockdown, undergoing multiple rounds of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and ultimately a mastectomy while having to shield at home alone, cut off from family and her two grown-up sons Adrian (24) and Marcus (19).

“As I approached my 50th birthday, I felt as if I had just found myself again. I’d lost weight, become healthier, was climbing mountains and was in a really happy place. It was just three months after my 50th birthday that I was diagnosed with cancer and felt my life turn on its head. Going through cancer during a pandemic was challenging to say the least.”

Rachelle was diagnosed in October 2019 after noticing a lump in her breast while showering, and was initially convinced it was simply a cyst.

However, a mammogram confirmed the presence of cancerous tissue, and the diagnosis caused her world to spin on its axis.

After removal of the lump, it was discovered that the cancer had spread to three lymph nodes, which also had to be removed. It was stage three breast cancer, and after followed the hell of chemotherapy.

“Chemo was worse than I expected. I started it before lockdown hit, just when we were hearing the first rumblings about Covid. I had round after round of chemo. It was pretty horrible, making me sick, leaving a horrible taste in my mouth. I would arrive at the Ulster Hospital for treatment at 9am and not leave until 5pm.

“When I left the feeling was just as if I had been hit by a bus.

“Just before my third round of chemo I got a call from the nurse telling me I couldn’t have my mum or my brother with me when I went for my treatment anymore because Covid had hit. Then I was told I couldn’t go home to my parents’ house after my chemo session was finished as I usually would; because of Covid, I had to go home and isolate in my own sterile bubble. I got a letter saying I had to shield and the isolation on top of chemo was just terrible. I couldn’t see my sons. I was climbing the walls and home began to feel like a prison. There is nothing lonelier than walking up a hospital corridor on your own. Eventually I convinced my oncologist to allow me to go for short walks at night just to get out of the house, when it was least likely that other people would be about.

“Sometimes people would call and talk to me through the window or my best friend Tracey would talk to me while I sat on the doorstep. It was really hard being sick at home alone with a bucket by the bed.

“At that time I thankfully found out about the vital support that is available through Cancer Focus NI.”

The charity allocated Rachelle a counsellor named Teresa whom she describes as “an absolute godsend”. She chatted with her every Monday over the telephone about her struggles, and things began to brighten for Rachelle psychologically in the midst of the most challenging health circumstances.

“After rounds and rounds of chemo, then radiotherapy which left me with terrible burns, biological therapy and then hearing the cancer had returned in December last year - it was triple negative breast cancer which is a particularly aggressive form - all of it was really devastating, I had to undergo a mastectomy, I really wasn’t coping. I just shut myself away at home for two weeks and didn’t want to talk to anyone - even my best friend Tracey.

“I felt that my family had lifted and laid me throughout chemo and beyond and I just didn’t want to burden them anymore. People have their own lives, and you don’t want to be constantly making it about you.

“But the mastectomy made me feel weird, like I didn’t fit in anywhere. I didn’t know how to cope with losing a part of myself. I felt self-conscious and depressed. It might sound like a trivial thing to some people but when I heard about Cancer Focus NI’s specialist bra-fitting service it meant the world to me. Having a bra that fitted properly did wonders for my self esteem. It might sound trite but having a proper-fitting bra is really an important part of a woman’s armoury.

“Then too they have a buddy system where you are teamed up with another breast cancer survivor who you can share your experiences with. I was paired with another woman who had had a mastectomy named Naomi.

“But the telephone sessions with my counsellor Teresa made such a real stand-out difference to me - I honestly don’t know how I would have managed without her. I could confide in her about things in a way I wasn’t able to with those closest to me because I didn’t want to bring them down.

“Teresa was just amazing and helped me learn to function again and I honestly owe her so much.

“When you walk out of that last chemo session, that’s it, there is no after care and it is incredibly hard to get your head around. But you need emotional support after all the trauma of diagnosis and treatment.”

Because Rachelle has been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer - which was again blasted with five rounds of chemo, there is no medication or further treatment now available to her, even though it is not a question of if the cancer will return but when.

Yet she continues to fight all of this with gusto and has a strongly optimistic message to all women facing a breast cancer diagnosis. Despite what she has endured, her attitude is nothing short of incredible.

“ With the way treatments have progressed today it is possible to beat a breast cancer diagnosis. Listen to your doctors. Have your family and friends around you. Avail of the excellent support Cancer Focus NI has to offer. Life life to the full because it is short and it is precious.”

She added: “I’ve had treatment during 18 of the last 24 months. I’ve had three surgeries - one major. But I’m still here and I’m still positive. I know the cancer will come back, but there is no way I am sitting about waiting for it, I am determined to go out there and life my best life and when it returns I will deal with it with as much fight in me as I can muster.

“I’ve fought it before and I will fight it again. You cannot deal with breast cancer without adopting any other attitude. Fight it. Do not let it take over your life. Make the most of the good times. Get out. Go and do things. Spend time with friends and family.”

Rachelle is back at the gym and intends to dye her hair pink again when it grows back. There is no keeping a good woman down.

And the resilient 51-year-old has a message for decision makers at Stormont who are presiding over the catastrophic situation whereby cancer treatments are being routinely postponed or cancelled due to the pandemic, with the looming possibility of a collapsed Executive only likely to heighten anxieties among those awaiting life-saving cancer treatment.

“I did a Zoom call with MLAs for Cancer Focus NI. I reminded them that people with cancer are not numbers, we are people. And behind every person diagnosed is a family who is gravely impacted. To delay cancer treatments and surgeries is just totally unacceptable. It has a massively destructive impact and we cannot afford to see the Executive collapse when postponed treatments for cancer are a live and death matter for so many.”

For more information on the wide range of support for breast cancer patients available from Cancer Focus NI visit cancerfocusni.org today.