MetUpUK member Connie sat down, on zoom, with some of her oldest friends to talk to them about their understanding of her life with MBC.
They discuss cancer types, treatment lines, tumor profiling, trials, survival rates, progressions, drug lines, and how all of this makes them feel.
Under NICE rules, I would not be eligible to receive the medication that I am currently taking for my metastatic breast cancer on the NHS. I have been on my current drug regime since 2017, I am feeling really well, my disease is stable, and my scans are clear.
I began taking Palbociclib over 3 years ago, badgering my Oncologist and accessing it through a free trial set up by Pfizer. The trial was designed to sway NICE into approving the drug for NHS use, despite it’s high price.
I have been living with secondary breast cancer for 7 years, and am very aware that I’m one of the very lucky ones as the median life expectancy is 2-3 years. The general public perception of breast cancer is that it’s ‘sorted’ – eg if you get it you will be fine. But few people realise that when it metastases (spreads) to the organs as mine has, it cannot be cured. It is the biggest killer of women under 50 with over 11,000 women dying of it every year in the UK.
Stage 4 breast cancer with a pacemaker
Most people know someone with a pacemaker, and chances are that person will be elderly. The average age of a first pacemaker implantation in the UK is 72, but pacemakers are actually fitted in people of all ages from newborn babies to the very elderly. I was 39 when I had mine, which was needed as a complication after heart surgery to replace my aortic valve and root.
I remember first hearing about genomics testing for cancer, about a year after my diagnosis of secondary breast cancer. I had failed on every line of treatment I’d been given, was fast running out of options, and looking for a lifeline
Every patient with metastatic cancer knows that at some point their oncologist will tell them that their treatment must be changed. This point is normally reached when cancer has progressed on
What’s your postcode and what does that say about you? If I asked a healthy person about the importance of their postcode I suspect they’d tell me about local schools,
Hi my name is Kit and apparently I’m a stubborn cow! Now the person who told me that didn’t think it was a good thing. But for a secondary breast
10th July 2020 Hi Debbie, Trying to condense the points from the June email with attachments I sent you. Going forward what we would like now is – for you
When I was told in late 2015 that I’d secured the last place on a phase 1 clinical trial, I didn’t in my wildest dreams think I’d end up still
