Hello all - its now October and its Breast Cancer Awareness Month - lots will be done to make women aware - we know what its like to lose a loved one to breast cancer - MEN only get a token mention in the campaign - most dont even know men can get breast cancer - so please pass this message, to whoever you meet.
MEN GET BREAST CANCER TOO
thank you David
Breast Cancer - survivor 2004 to ?
A timely reminder David. Will do.
Good luck for the future.
Dx
I actually meet a man at work yesterday who had had BC… my 1st.
I work in a cafe and was wearing a glove on my hand to be careful, he asked me why, I told him that i had cancer and the glove was a precaution against cutting myself. He asked what cancer and I thought he was being a bit nosey… but I told him and he said that he had it too.! A new friend
Posted below on behalf of new user Robert:
Nice work for the awareness programme.
Robert
I have just done an interview with the local paper as one of BCC’s voices and I think I remembered to mention all the bits and pieces, including that it affects men as well as women.
Things I think I mentioned:
* There are 16 different types of breast cancer, not just one
* I explained about grades and how the grade is a rating of how different the cells are from normal cells
* Chemo stealing all your hair
* Tt’s not just an old women’s disease, young women and men get it too
* Some people are diagnosed, or go on to get, secondaries even in their 20s or 30s
* I was lucky, others aren’t as lucky as me - (I only had primaries, had clear nodes, didn’t have to have a mastectomy, didn’t get too dreadful side-effects, am coping fairly well on Tamoxifen, don’t have lympho - and I really do believe I am lucky in the grand scheme of things)
* Some people also get lymphoedema, which is life-long
* Chemo made me sick, fat, old, bald and gaga
* Chemo was the hardest thing I’ve ever done
* Hormone therapy goes on for years and the side-effects can be rotten
* I was worried about the support for my family, not just for me
* BCC is wonderful (I said that several times!)
* A cancer diagnosis is like a bomb going off in your life, it affects you physically, financially, mentally, psychologically, and affects all of those around you too
* My family have been fantastic, but it’s been tough on them too, when mum couldn’t do what she usually used to
* You lose trust in your body and have a “monkey on your shoulder” all the time, where every ache and pain might be cancer
* The main places for secondaries are brain, liver, bones and lungs, so every achy joint (which can be caused by the hormone treatment), every cold, headache or stomach pain that lasts longer than a day sends you up the worry pole
* It’s not just your head hair that you lose…
* It’s really EXPENSIVE to get cancer - I’ve lost at least two-thirds of my expected income during the last year
* It’s expensive to go through treatment - £1.50 for every hospital visit for parking, not to mention transport costs for what feels like hundreds of appointments
* Tamoxifen throws you into fully-fledged menopause complete with hot flushes, sweats, lack of sleep and mental acuity difficulties
* There is no such thing as an “all clear” with BC, the best we can hope for is NED - “No Evidence of Disease”
* It’s the most common (or is it the second? Couldn’t remember) form of cancer for women
* Everyone needs to be body aware and check any changes from what is normal for them, not just lumps but dimples, nipple problems, excess warmth
* TLC - Touch, Look, Check
* Don’t ignore mammogram letters
* BC IS NOT PINK AND FLUFFY, IT KILLS PEOPLE!
* 48,000 diagnosed every year
* 12,000 die every year
* If you find a lump, get it investigated - not getting it checked out doesn’t make it go away
* 9 out of 10 referrals to the breast clinic turn out NOT to be cancer, but other breast conditions
* Around 25% of women who get a BC diagnosis go on to suffer depression (but the anti-d’s can help with the Tamoxifen side-effects!)
Think that’s about it, so hopefully the poor reporter will be able to sling something together from that lot. I think she’s going to send her draft across to me to take a look at, so I’ll be very impressed if she gets the whole lot.
Nicely said choccy.
I love seeing the ladies in the supermarket. Pink bags, pink shirts, pink badges. They take one look at me and make me feel as though i’m dirty. Uneducated!
I’m holding a fundraising event at the end of the month and was trying to think of all the serious stuff that really should be mentioned and CM has done the job for me - thank you! xx
Although I am holding a Pink Friday event I am very aware that there is a serious side to things and I will make sure that everyone also knows that men can get it too because men mostly get ignored where bc campaigning is concerned.
Thanks again CM!
And I forgot to mention the chemo farts! HOW could I forget THAT?!
Choccimuffin,
How I wish that some work colleagues could read your notes and maybe understand the ramifications of BC. Whilst I wouldn’t wish BC on anyone, I do wish they could walk in our shoes just for an hour!
I know pink & fluffy gets awareness but it doesn’t show the reality that men & women have to go through with BC.
Axx
Have to agree with all the comments on here and well done Choccimuffin let us know where we can see the full article.
BW
Jean x
Hello David,
Thanks for the reminder. There is a small group of us from Asia, UK and N America posting awareness messages on facebook and twitter every couple of days during October. One of the week 1 messages was saying just your point - men get breast cancer too but most of the information and support is aimed at women.
When I was having radiotherapy there was one lone bc man being treated at the same general appointment time.
Eliza
Feel free to copy the list, as long as you remember to mention the farts …
BBC Scotland have just shown a short news report on men with breast cancer and the isolation they can experience.
See it here: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15380731
(As for me, I tend to get called Mr in some contexts because of my job…)
Well done choccie, you covered everything so well I think you can be forgiven for forgetting the farts!!! As a secondary person I particularly want to thank you for including that fact.xx
Hiya Everyone,
Below is what I’ve posted on my Facebook page today - but I had to edit my post as it was too long, n I’ve just realised the secondaries are now left out so I’ll put them in on another post next week. And as for chemo farts Choccie - well I guess as I’ve pinched your interview remarks for my post, ok then I’ll put in about farts too (if I’m brave enough anyways, as I’m a bit of a coward n not as brave as you!!) Lol!xx
This is what I put:-
It’s breast cancer awareness month, and there’s lots of pink and fluffy things for sale, in aid of the cancer charities that provide such vital support and information to anyone affected by cancer. But although the products we buy are pretty and pink, the disease definitely is not. It affects women of all ages, and also men. So it’s important to remember TLC - touch, look, check, so that you know what’s normal for your breasts, and report to your doctor about any changes. Breast cancer can be really successfully treated, but the flip side is it’s still a killer. People may go through the treatment successfully and appear healed to others, but inside they may feel they’ve lost trust in their bodies, and may worry about every ache or pain. Some of them may not always voice this, cos they’re so grateful to still be around!
I write this to send much love to anyone who has been affected by any sort of cancer, whether it be themselves or people close to them.
This was the final article. She didn’t put in some of the tougher things, didn’t mention secondaries, didn’t mention how many people die each year, and got the number of diagnoses wrong (think she added an extra zero to the 48,000 I told her) but it’s not pink and fluffy.
And didn’t mention the farts either…
getsurrey.co.uk/lifestyle/health_and_beauty/s/2102349_moving_on_from_breast_cancer
for someone starting Chemo next week, thanks for the farts warning!! my OH does not think i break wind… is this going to be an eye opener for him??
Is that you, Choccie?
You look fabulous!
You have a lovely shaped head…
(Ducks and runs)
I read only one article in the weekend times a fortnight ago on the subject of stage 4 bc. Not enough awareness on metastatic bc in my opinion.
Agree with you on that one Tina.
I have been doing my bit on my FB page to educate friends and family but it seems like some dirty little secret that few people want to talk about…
Laurie x