In September 2018, whilst taking a shower Emily found a lump after checking herself. Initially thinking it was a blocked duct as she was breastfeeding her youngest son Conor at the time, she made an appointment with her GP to be on the safe side. She has three young boys.
She was sent to the Beacon Triple Assessment Clinic. Following an ultrasound, a mammogram and 5 biopsies, her consultant asked her to immediately stop breastfeeding, in case she would need to start treatment once they received her results. On September 13th, she went back to The Beacon with her husband Donal for her biopsy results, where she was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma. She was just 36 years old at the time.
Her treatment began in October 2018 in Vincent’s Hospital. Due to her HER2 status, her oncologist decided she would have chemotherapy first. She was put on an 18 week course of TCH chemotherapy (Taxol, Carboplatin and Herceptin), finishing in February 2019. She also used the cold cap during her courses of chemotherapy which she had great success with.
Following sentinel node removal in February 2019, she got the news that her nodes were clear and the cancer had not spread. She then had a right mastectomy and immediate reconstruction on the 15th of March 2019. Following the mastectomy she met her breast surgeon who informed her that her margins were clear with only a tiny amount of cancer tissue left due to the chemotherapy. Therefore, she no longer needed to have radiotherapy.
She started Zoladex in January 2020, which she does find tough sometimes. In the past two years, her family’s been hit hard with breast cancer, however before this there was no history whatsoever. She has had genetic testing done since and is BRCA negative.
