Have you ever wondered what the relationship is like between primary and secondary breast cancer patients when they are talking about cancer?
We’ve put 4 of our MetUpUK members on a zoom call to chat it out – Mary and Laura have secondary cancer and Helen and Emily have had primary breast cancer.
A diagnosis of cancer is a major life event. None of us is immune to the
potential of developing the disease. It doesn’t discriminate by age, gender,
sexual orientation or ethnicity. It can also develop in any part of the body. In
the case of breast cancer, one in seven women will be diagnosed with it
during their lifetime. Approximately 30% of those women will go on to develop secondary breast cancer.
Laura has been living with metastatic breast cancer for 14.5 years, and Nina was diagnosed less than a year ago.
They have been friends since they were teenagers.
Join them as they chat about finding out their cancer was incurable.
Hi, I’m Kat, and I’m a nurse at Dr Kershaw’s Hospice in Oldham. You’ve heard from me before and today I wanted to share with you my experiences of supporting Becky, an incredible woman living with metastatic breast cancer, and my thoughts on what I hope early hospice care was able to contribute to her life.
“My little sister Helen is 39 years old. She is a married mum of 3 girls, all under the age of 9, and is a nurse with 22 years of service in the RAF. She is a much-loved wife, an adored mummy, a treasured daughter, a dearly loved sister, niece, and aunt, and a favoured friend and colleague to many.
31 life size figures of women are now set to tour the UK as an interactive campaign to raise awareness of issues surrounding secondary breast cancer after a small residency with the support of The Corn Exchange in Manchester.
When I first started volunteering with METUPUK, I wasn’t really sure what I would do. For a few months, I sat on the sides to get a feel for the organisation. I shared METUPUK links on social media, but I don’t have much of a social media presence, and Instagram is a bit of a mystery to me. I’ve never figured out how to do makeup, plus my hair is a non-event after chemo. I thought I wanted to help with drug access or access to clinical trials, but I was flexible and wanted to see what was needed.
Last year Nick rode 310 miles through Wales to raise money for MetUpUK.
You can follow his whole journey and find out more about why he wanted to do the ride in the first place in this video.
At METUPUK, we dream of the day when metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is downgraded from an incurable to a chronic illness. The only way this will be possible is through new scientific research. We urgently need more research into this deadly disease.
We need more clinical research into MBC, including clinical trials. These are crucial for determining which are the most effective treatment options and for bringing new drug treatments to patients.
METUPUK is now 5 years old.
In those 5 years there haven’t been many changes in our plans from what we set out to do, but we have achieved so much! And we are now a registered charity!
Our strategy, aims and objectives are the same as when we started, we knew what direction we were going in but we are now looking to demand more action and accountability for patients.
