Meet Helen from our Summer Campaign
Posted by Claire Boote, on July 26, 2021.
Estimated reading time: 1 minute(s)
Helen, 54, lives in West Yorkshire
Ever since the teenage Helen was gifted some fancy (and surprisingly racy) underwear by her grandmother, she has loved stylish and special lingerie. But now style must also be comfortable while Helen navigates life post-breast cancer.
Helen’s breast cancer journey has run almost in tandem with the Covid pandemic. After months of believing she had simply pulled a muscle, Helen finally discovered a small lump near her ribcage in May 2020. She called her doctor that day and was transferred for an immediate biopsy.
Life was now in lockdown meaning she had to face appointments alone, often scared and in surreal circumstances. In July, she received her test results confirming she had grade 3 breast cancer. Her own mother had died of breast cancer at a young age (she was just 36), so Helen was terrified and “quite hysterical” at the thought of leaving her son.
“After a few weeks of feeling this horrible, heightened anxiety, I made the conscious decision that I couldn’t continue like that”
Helen says,
“it wasn’t good for me or my family. It was what it was and we had to just get on with it and fight it the best we could.”
Her surgery and treatment involved a lumpectomy followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. During this process she developed sepsis and recovered, then suffered from neuropathy, which she stills struggles with.
Dealing with breast cancer against the backdrop of a global health pandemic was scary but, at times, oddly helpful for Helen. She felt very alone during appointments and telling her parents remotely over the phone that she had cancer was particularly hard. But she feels lucky to have been seen so quickly and that isolation in her household bubble “allowed me to pull myself together and find a way to deal with things in my head and process it all. It took away pressure to say ‘oh, I’m fine…’ to well-meaning visitors.”
As England’s third lockdown began to ease in March 2021,
Helen was told she was finally in remission. She kept this good news a secret from some for a little while, explaining “I was scared if I told people, I’d jinx myself and the cancer would come back.”
Now she’s approaching life with a new vitality (and new Royce underwear)! She explains, “I think the fear of death gave me my mojo back. I rediscovered the power of red lipstick and found that really short hair and headscarves suit me! I have become closer to my family and l have learnt to say no without feeling guilty. You have to embrace this wonderful thing called life.”
