After finding a lump in her breast in March 2022, Melanie Hudson, then aged 50, sought an appointment with her GP. “Typical Ireland, it took me two weeks to get an appointment.” Following her GP visit, she was referred for a check which didn’t take place until May, just shy of her 51st birthday. “On the 4 May, I set off for my tests. As I hadn’t yet been called by BreastCheck, I went private. I had had a mammogram and ultrasound before, so I knew what to expect but I grew suspicious when a biopsy and further mammograms were required. My mind began to race and as people started to be extra kind and treat me nicer after my tests. I began to plan my funeral and wonder who would look after my dog when I’m gone.”

Following her tests, that same day Melanie met with a consultant who talked her through some scans. “The scans may as well have been abstract art to me, but he told me he was 95% certain I had breast cancer, and that I would need to go for further tests—an MRI and a CT scans—to be 100% sure. About a week later, I went for these and got the news that three tumours had been found and it has also spread to some lymph nodes. I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. You would assume hearing that news would be awful, and it was, but honestly, finding out it hadn’t spread anywhere else was like winning the Euromillions.”

Keen to get on with her treatment, Melanie explains that she went for her lumpectomy on 31 May, and only after this surgery and further analysis of her tumours, could the rest of her treatment pathway be determined. “At that particular point, my consultant was unable to tell me if I needed chemotherapy.  When the biopsy was taken, it was only taken from one tumour.  Therefore, during surgery, samples of the other two tumours would be taken and sent for analysis. He explained to me that the vast majority of breast cancers are hormone based and that there is a particular hormone called Herceptin and if my cancer was HER 2 positive, I would require chemo. If it was HER 2 negative I wouldn’t require chemo. It’s not that the HER 2 negative is any less serious, it’s that chemo doesn’t work on it.”

Following her surgery, Melanie experienced a lot of swelling and fluid build up in her breast. “I went back for a check up 10 days later and my consultant drained 700ml of fluid from my breast due to severe swelling. The following week, I was back. This time, 1.3l of fluid – that’s two whole litres. At the end of June, I ended up in hospital for 10 days with an infection. My surgeon was on holidays and it was like nobody wanted to touch me until he got back. These were among my worst days on my cancer journey. I was on multiple oral and intravenous antibiotics and developed oral and vaginal thrush. I couldn’t eat or taste anything. Eventually, my wound where I had been stitched up from surgery, just burst open from the infection. This was a really difficult and traumatising period. They got me bandaged up and when my surgeon got back from holidays, I was transferred to him and a drain was eventually put on my breast, and I was discharged. The drain lasted ten days, and after that, there was still swelling and it was sore, but thankfully, there was no more wounds bursting open.”

After a period of recovery and finding out that she was HER2 negative, Melanie began her radiotherapy. “My radiotherapy started on the 6th of September. I was nervous about this having read up on it, especially with my fair Irish skin. Even after week one, the redness on my skin was quite obvious. I was lathering on the moisturiser but this didn’t seem to make any difference for me. Eventually, my skin blistered and broke and the burns were significant enough for the consultant to call a halt after the 15th session. The radiotherapy had managed to burn through the wound and cause this to reopen. Despite all the complications along my treatment pathway, I got through it. I suppose I have shared the difficulties I encountered with treatment in the hope that anyone who experiences something similar will know they are not alone and they can get through it too. 

In sharing her story, Melanie wants to highlight two additional aspects of cancer that are more rarely discussed. “One of the things which is rarely spoken about in the context of a cancer diagnosis is the financial impact. When you’re out on sick leave, at some point your pay will diminish considerably.  This is at a time when your expenses are very much increased due to your illness in terms of consultant fees, medication, travel to appointments, tolls etc. This for me was quite difficult to manage, even though I was fortunate to pay into an Income Continuance Protection Plan in work when I was much younger thanks to the advice of older and wiser colleagues. With this protection, I was on 75% pay throughout my cancer experience, and I still struggled, so I can’t imagine how others in worse situations cope.”

Secondly, Melanie wants to highlight what she refers to as “having to justify” her cancer. “As outlined in my story, I didn’t have to undergo chemotherapy, because it doesn’t work on my particular type of breast cancer and therefore, I didn’t lose my hair. I also was fortunate to only need a lumpectomy, and not the full removal of my breast. Like many others, I associated cancer with hair-loss and breast cancer maybe with the removal of a breast – but I learned by living it that this is not always the case, and it certainly doesn’t mean that your cancer journey was any easier. At times, I found myself talking to some people who thought because I still had my hair, and both breasts were intact, that perhaps my cancer was dismissed as not being too serious. I felt myself having to justify my cancer. One learning for me is that I think we need to create that awareness around different treatments and how not everybody will look and go through the same thing when they have cancer.”

A final word of advice from Melanie on her cancer experience is that unlike what she did, she would encourage anybody going through a diagnosis to reach out for support. “I am very stubborn and independent, and I let “no thanks” be my default response when people offered help. Don’t do what I did, and turn down help. Another thing, only after I finished my treatment did I reach out to local cancer support groups, and I should have done that sooner. Help is out there, don’t go through it alone. You are no less independent for accepting or asking for help.”