At 42, my world was turned upside down when I was diagnosed with stage 3 hormone-receptive breast cancer.
As a busy mum of three and my own business, life was already chaotic. The last thing I expected was to face breast cancer. With a family history of breast cancer on both my mum and dad’s side and quite dense breast tissue, I’ve undergone annual MRI scans since my early 30s.
On the morning of my MRI in 2022 I almost didn’t go. It was a hectic week, my daughter was sick, and I thought I could put it off. But thankfully, I didn’t. "You have cancer" – a diagnosis I never thought I would receive.
My decision to have MRIs saved my life. The cancer was found on the back wall of my breast, meaning that it could not be felt through self-checks and was unlikely to be seen in a mammogram.
It hadn’t spread to my lymph nodes yet, but if I had put off my scan and gone a couple months later, it would’ve been a completely different diagnosis.
Upon hearing those fateful words, the decision was made to immediately have a double mastectomy, where both breasts are removed to ensure not only the cancer is removed, but there is less risk of it returning.
The surgery saved my life, and now I get to enjoy those small, precious moments with my family that I once feared I’d lose.
My outlook today is positive, but my journey could have ended very differently if I hadn’t caught it in time.
Breast cancer research made this possible, and now, my greatest hope is that my six-year-old daughter, who’s at high risk herself, will never have to face what I did. But for that to happen, we need your help to fund more research.
Without cancer research I never would have been able to see my daughter start school, never would have seen my son win his basketball championship, and would never have been able to special moments with my family like climbing Adelaide Oval with my eldest.
We need you to keep investing in cancer research so future generations never have to hear those fateful words like I did.
Your support of The Longest Table is funding vital cancer research, helping Australians just like Leah spend even more previous moments with their families.
