Sharon & Laura

In October Make 2nds Count supporter, Sharon, took on the incredible challenge of swimming a mile a day for a week. She has kindly agreed to share why she took on this challenge and why Make 2nds Count is so important to her and her family. 

My cousin was 43 years old when she found a lump in her left breast.  This is her story of being diagnosed with cancer how we discovered Make 2nds Count and my decision to raise money for this charity.  

On the 2nd March 2017, my cousin was told she had breast cancer after initially being told that her lump was probably a cyst with no lymph node involvement. Two weeks later, she was sent for an ultrasound scan and mammogram.  From there she needed four biopsies (two from her underarm, and two from her breast). She was diagnosed as stage 2 breast cancer and her oncologist reassured her that it wasn't a death sentence. Fast forward only 2 weeks later, and her operation date came around. She had a mastectomy of her left breast and complete lymph node removal, it was then discovered that out of 15 lymph nodes, 9 had cancer.

That's when everything changed. 

At only 43 years old, she was given the devastating news that her cancer wasn't stage 2, in fact, her cancer had spread to her hip bone and she was given the diagnosis of stage 4 secondary breast cancer.  Our world, as a family, changed forever. 

An aggressive course of gruelling chemotherapy and radiotherapy was administered and Laura's journey into a lifetime of treatment had begun.

As her treatment ended, in the December, she got to place the first decoration on the treatment unit's Christmas tree because secondary breast cancer will never go into remission. You don't get the ring the bell for your end of treatment because your treatment will never end (but you can choose to ring the bell if you wish, but the symbolism is missing).  

Laura joined various Facebook groups for support and I researched, as much as I could, with this new language of ‘secondary breast cancer’.  I didn’t know it existed or what it meant. Laura, however, did know what it meant and the severity of her situation.  

Earlier this year, I was watching the news and saw a group of women being interviewed from Make 2nds Count - on ITV. The information they managed to convey, in the short interview time they had, was enough for me to research their charity and follow them on Instagram.  

That’s where my fundraising idea began. 

I emailed the charity for advice on how to set up a fundraising page and that’s where I spoke to Amanda. She pointed me in the right direction, gave me vital statistics to include in my write up and I was ready to start my challenge. I decided to swim 7 miles within 7 consecutive days and raised a total of £465 (to date) for Make 2nds Count, and hopefully raised some awareness of secondary breast cancer in the process.

Thank you so much Sharon for raising both funds and awareness for Make 2nds Count. And thank you to Laura for letting us tell your story.