My story - Turning a curse into a blessing…
My name is Lorena and I am a breast cancer survivor
It was November 2011. I was 31, living in Rugby and working in London for a law firm. I had a healthy lifestyle, I was vegetarian, I went to ballet classes. I was generally happy.
But I had constant pain in my left breast. So I decided to replace most of my bras with a more elastic, non-wired type, hoping that would solve it.
I tried to put it to the back of my mind, hoping the pain was temporary and would go away.
One night in bed I found a lump and I was scared.
I went to my GP who very quickly dismissed the possibility of it being cancer, saying that cancer does not hurt. But I had private health insurance through work, so I insisted she write a referral letter for me to see a specialist.
I contacted my insurer and I got an appointment immediately.
I went to my appointment on my lunch break and had a mammogram and a biopsy, with the nurses promising I'd get the results within hours. I left the clinic and before I made it back to the office they called me and told me to come straight back.
I thought this was pretty weird and I assumed they'd simply forgotten to do a test. As I walked back into the oncology room I saw there were three people there, all ready to break the big news to me.
We are sorry you have cancer, they said.
The diagnosis was grade II invasive ductal carcinoma, HER2 positive, in my left breast. I was so frightened, I didn't know what to expect, but no tears were coming out.
I remember sitting next to another woman in the waiting room who had also been told she had breast cancer and she was asking me how I could be so serene after what they had just told me.
But I was in absolute denial and there I remained for a long, long time. So much in denial that I even went back to work that day like nothing had happened. It took some time to sink in – so long, in fact, that it has taken me many years to be able to look at my experience and start writing about it.
Being diagnosed with cancer was such a shock but looking back, my life wasn't as serene as I'd imagined. I was stressed at work, I was commuting long hours, and I was tired all the time.
“I started losing my hair a couple of weeks after the first chemo infusion so I asked my partner to completely shave my head. I bought myself a couple of wigs and wore them constantly.”
At week later, my surgeon arranged a lumpectomy.
When the lump had been removed the results showed I had stage two, oestrogen-positive breast cancer. I asked myself all the typical questions.
Am I going to lose my hair?
Am I going to die?
By the end of November, I had my port inserted in my chest and, shortly after, began my six rounds of chemo. Little did I know that chemo not only would make me lose all my hair, but also give me excruciating pain in my joints and muscles.
On my non-chemo weeks, I still went to work, commuting an hour and a half each way from Rugby to London. I tried to enjoy life and only took a couple of months of sick leave.
I started losing my hair a couple of weeks after the first chemo infusion so I asked my partner to completely shave my head. I bought myself a couple of wigs and wore them constantly. My hair started to grow back in May the following year.
Radiation came next, 35 days of it.
I did well. I was proud of myself. The worst was behind me. After that I was given hormone treatment. Overall I had 14 months of treatment and was told to take hormone represent tablets for another ten years.
I was also advised at the start of the treatment to freeze my eggs because the whole process would make me infertile. I didn't do it, but here I am, the proud mother of a beautiful and healthy six-year-old. And I'm now hormone-therapy free.
My illness made me reassess my priorities.
I decided to train as a yoga teacher in 2015 as a result of finding solace and a better lifestyle. I have since done many courses and become a specialised yoga for cancer instructor to help and inspire people affected with cancer and their loved ones.
Cancer does not affect everyone the same way, but in some way we'll all be affected by cancer.