Ooo, very good point about the busy road, Nottsgal. I’m going to take that one away with me, along with the passenger in a car accident one.
Hi nottsgal,
I’m 36 with no family history and was dx last march. My sisters were 42 and 34 amd i adked about them and both were invited in and were given mammograms and ultrasound and had full appointments with the family history service. If i was you, i’d bypass your onc and phone the famoly history unit yourself perhaps?
Even double the risk isnt that big a risk, but sh!t happens and peace of mind is invaluable.
Vickie
I was told that me having BC at 32 meant my daughters were 50% more likley to get breast cancer ( i think this is why i no longer sleep at night). The genetics unit said they would see them at 18 and make a plan moving forward from there.
horrible thought
I have to admit, I’ve been in the pub this evening and have had three pints of London Pride, and very tasty they were too. But I was mentally giving the middle finger to the reporters who are now trying to make out that I’ve done this to myself. I’m Er 4/8 so mildly so, but still have Tamox on the horizon, and feel really bitter that I’m being blamed for getting cancer. Sig. other can’t understand why I’m so upset about it, but he’s a bloke so I can understand that he wouldn’t understand.
I KNOW that that’s not the full story, but the FEELINGS are different, and I’m a bit miserable this evening because of all of this, and that’s not like me.
Chocciemuffin— don’t beat yourself up! I was so angry as well. Now trying to think up a socially acceptable reason for my hair falling out!Got it caught in in the foodmixer when I was baking? Got a shock when I got the electricity bill and my hair fell out?
I took HRT for many years ,I’m overweight but I drink very little- sometimes don’t have a drink for months.
I’m triple neg and oncologist laughed when I asked if HRT was cause and said I could have fed it with any amount of hormone with no effect.
Hi CM - sorry to hear you say you’re feeling a bit down tonight. Don’t let the media get to you. We’re all so different, yet so many of us have got “it”!!
I was ER 8/8 PR 7/8. Am not overweight, have a very healthy diet, played netball league until in my 40s (now 62), am now a bowler (summer and winter), have a drink on a Thurs when out with my friends and on a Saturday when out with OH, had a child when I was 40, breast fed both my chidders for 9 months, had menopause at 44, was on HRT for about 7 years, no family history of bc. What does all this say - I’m just a normal person who has been unlucky enough to get bc!
Fight the beast and live your life as you see fit!
Hugs
Pauline x
Don’t blame the media for me feeling glum, this is the real reason I generally limit myself to a max of 2 pints, I just turn psychotic!
I’ll be fine in the morning. I think “grumpy” or “pissed off” might have been better descriptions. And OH’s attitude wasn’t him being dismissive of mine, just the balance on the other end of the scale. He really is a tonic.
(Note to self: either stop after two or stay off the forums!)
Janet Street-Porter has joined us in our mass grouch in her column in the Independent today.
Cheryl
Thanks Cheryl. 
Off to have a read, link is here,
What a great article from JS-P.
CM, my OH similarly hadn’t got a clue what I was angry about!
I don’t blame him, it’s how he is about life, and he is my rock. But he’s not the place to go to if I’m looking for sympathy!
Thanks Cheryll and Belinda, good article, and great to have it from a high profile women, who does NOT have BC, and therefore be seen as having some sort of axe to grind or be ‘defending’ her lifestyle choices,
Tracey
Hi Ladies all,
I was feeling really crap about all the media coverage on Friday and
carried that into my weekend,should have read this thread sooner!
We are all just bloody unlucky to have this disease and feeling that we are in some way to blame is not useful in any way!
But while we can sound off and support each other and to be honest take a lot(not all,there has been some appropriate reporting)with a large pinch of salt, it will be the better for us all.
Best wishes to you all,
Traceyx
Think you right there Tracey.I made some as they say “bad lifestyle choices” but it wasn’t my fault I got cancer (although I’m sure others will disagree but that’s their prerogative :).My lovely mum was diagnosed at 44 and died at 51 was it her fault, certainly not.
S–T happens.
Melxx
PS thought the J S Porter article was good.
a bit late with this but it was in respect of the comments about family history.
having a mother, sister or daughter diagnosed in their 60s or 70s doesnt increase the risk to the individual but if they were diagnosed at a younger age they are at an increased risk… for somebody diagnosed under 40 their sisters and daughters will be eligible for early screening.
for somebody diagnosed in their 40s or older there is no increased screening.
for 2 or more individuals under 60 there is increased screening or if there are 3 or more individuals affected.
think it sounds like it was just one of their offhand remarks given without an explanation leading to a lot of worry for some people yet again.
i am a brca2 carrier and our risk are completely different to those in the general population… eg having babies increases the risk of Bc and drinking alcohol has no effect on the risk.
i wonder how eager all these misinformed reporters would be to report such negativity if it was their mother, wife, sister, daughter who was the one with BC?
can i also add in respect of the number being diagnosed having doubled in 30 years… its actually jumped up rapid after the introduction of screening in the late 80s… maybe the last 20 years would be a more accurate time scale as all the women in the last 20 years have had access to screening which was not available routinely before then… many women are now diagnosed who have no idea there is any cancer or pre-cancer there, yet years ago they would only be attending for diagnosis at the point ethy had symptoms eg 1.5cm lump compared to DCIS or even a 3mm tumour which would not be symptomatic.
Lx
I take the point about screening presenting many new cases of BC. My parents were from the WW2 generation who witnessed the birth of the NHS. People of that generation didn’t go to see their GPs nearly as much as we do now and screening was more about the diseases we have pretty much eradicated like TB. My mum died 30 years ago and my dad 5 years ago - going to see a doctor was something they only did if they felt it was absolutely necessary. I think it was because they remembered the bad old days of people not being able to afford doctors, so for them the NHS was a very precious resource and not to be abused. My dad collapsed with heart failure when he was 80 because he wouldn’t drag himself to the doctor with a chest infection that wasn’t clearing up.
As another example, my SiL had a huge op for bowel cancer this time last year. Had she not taken part in the over 50s screening programme here is Scotland she may not have found out she had it in time. Her symptoms were a slight feeling of being bloated, especially during the night, and she had put this down to all the problems she’s had with the menopause. She had slight constipation, but no symptoms like blood in her stools. The tumour they found was the size of a plum and she was very lucky it hadn’t broken through her intestine or gone to her lymph nodes.
There’s a very good article about this in today’s guardian G2. It explores some of the statistics and more importantly this discussion is mentioned!!! Fame at last…
Here is the link. A very good article.
guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/08/breast-cancer-one-in-eight
This is what I found the most interesting
“At the age of 29, in fact, the risk of breast cancer is only one in 2,000. At 39, it is one in 215 and at 49, when the invitation to breast cancer screening is about to drop through the door, it is one in 50. It is not until a woman reaches 70 that Cancer Research UK offers a “lifetime risk” of one in eight.”
Just remember too, that no one else can make you feel guilty, only you make yourself feel guilty. LIfestyle choices still are a factor, it is just that as we don’t now our starting risks, then we don’t know how much of an effect lifestyle choices will have.
Another change is that the upper age for screening has been raised to 70 since it was first introduced, which means that it is more likely to be diagnosed in the group most likely to have it, whereas the upper age used to be 64.
Cheryl
Exelent artical, much more balanced ,many thanks to Jackie Harris and BCC for their contributions to this piece on our behalf.
Linda