Sam's story
I can be quite a nerd, a little too honest and I think my sense of humour would be considered a bit quirky.
I'm married to my childhood sweetheart, and we have two children. I’ve been working in the NHS as a Podiatrist for the last 15 years and last year we decided to move nearer to my family in Dorset.
I’ve been plunged into a chemical menopause because of my breast cancer treatment
In April 2018, I felt there was something wrong with my breast and after several GP appointments later, I was finally sent to the local breast clinic where they diagnosed me with Stage 3 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma in January 2019. They found three tumours in my left breast with lymph node involvement.
I had a mastectomy with immediate DIEP reconstruction followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I’m still having Zoledronic Acid infusions for my bone health and will be on hormone suppression therapy for five years.
I went through diagnosis and treatment with my two friends
I went through breast cancer with two ladies that now are like family to me. We are all completely different but are also one and we call ourselves the Breastketeers. Our children were friends and in the same class at school when we were diagnosed with breast cancer, all within 4 months of each other!
I’ve shared my experiences through social media and fundraise for local breast cancer charities and Breast Cancer Now
It’s been a whirlwind of emotions and experiences over the last few years. I’ve attended a few Breast Cancer Now courses – a Younger Women together event which I found very inspirational to meet other ladies that are atypical at their age to have breast cancer. I also attended their Moving Forward course which helped me immensely to transition from in-patient to out-patient.
I used my bald head to make parody photos of all the famous baldies I could think of and put them on Instagram!
My children helped me create famous scenes from film and tv and we laughed so much - I think my sense of humour would be considered a bit quirky. I used Instagram to document my experiences to help my children as well as myself get through it all.
It's important to wear pink in October because the more pink we wear, more questions will be asked and more conversations will start about breast cancer awareness.
Join Sam and wear it pink this October!
