Doesn’t anyone survive this wretched disease…?? (and may she get her ’ many useful years the oncologists have promised).
Yes quite a lot people do survive breast cancer, but more people get secondary recurrences than suggested by Pink October hype. I am very sorry indeed to hear of Wendy Richards’’ recent mets diagnosis. I hope she doesn’t face media hounding and I hope maybe instead there could be more accurate reporting about metastatic breast cancer.
Jane
Yes, reading some reader’s comments on a certain newspaper site I see Wendy Richards has already been given advice to stay positive, go to Lourdes, get 2nd opinions, fight this etc. etc.
I wish her well with her upcoming treatment and I do hope she’s not hounded by the newspapers.
I rmember her going on breakfast TV when she was first treated for BC in the 90s. She said it was a tiny, pea sized lump and it had been caught very early. I think she only had rads for it.
Wendy, if you’re reading this, we are with you in it. So sorry you have to deal with this cr*p too,
Jacquie x
It makes you wonder that if you live long enough, you will probably get recurrences or secondaries… I guess it is all to do with the type of cancer you get in the first place. Some are going to come back whatever the treatment and some are not. It does make you wonder whether prognosis is correlated to early diagnosis. The more I read, the more I think that some cancers will return/metastisise regardless of at what stage they are diagnosed and some will not. The problem is that most statistics relate to five or ten year survival which is fine if you are 70 when diagnosed but not so helpful if you are young.
the stats are great information for a group of 1000 women - but they don’t tell anyone person where they are going to end up. …this old cliche is really true, certainly feel it as one who has ended up on the crap end of the stats I think there is a test in the states called the oncotype (?) which apparently gives much better predicitive results…but maybe its only slightly better than the group statistics,
Had to look up who Wendy Richards - sorry to see as of course I actually knew…I hope the press will not intrude on her.
cathy
Hi,
I think the only thing predictable about cancer is that…it is unpredictable.
We trawl through statistics, seraching for guidance to our own prognosis but we will never find it because no study has ever been done that includes you or me.
We will never know until we get a recurrance or die of something else. That’s what makes it a nightmare.
Best wishes Wendy if you come on this site.
Sheana x
It’s bad enough facing gossip at work and the school playground but to have to face media intrusion and ‘joepublic’s beliefs’, at a time of a secondary diagnosis and try to cope with it when all your world is in a turmoil must be awful.
Really hope she gets the right sort of support and advice that we get here using this and other forums as well as the right treatment options.
These forms are so often my lifeline for my sanity and also my education so I can fight for the right treatment.
Wendy - if you do come on here, we do all support each other and as everyone knows it is often the ‘silly’ question that you can never bring yourself to ask at consultation is the one that worries you the most.
As for - who survives - stats are just numbers and who knows which side we will fall on but I do know a lady diagnosed at 27and who have survived some 40 years. Olivia Newton John is another one who is well or so I read yesterday.
Kate
Wendy Richard went on TV a while back and did say she’d been unlucky as she had a recurrence a while back. It’s not fair, she is an actress who has given a lot of enjoyment to many, I wasn’t really an eastenders fan, but I thought she was very funny in many things she did from Carry Ons to Are you being served
not the most PC things but still a laugh
mole
We keep hearing of another lady dealing with mets, Im so fed up with pink October at the moment, it does not deal with the issues alot of us will have to endure, all we hear is the “I survived” stories and yes thats a good thing but I wish they would not use the word cured when making these fanciful statements, Wendy Richard is proof that no matter how far down the line you are it can and does come back!
Stats mean nothing though, my husbands grandma had a mastectomy in the 1950’s and died two years ago aged 91 so its a total lottery as to who will do ok and who will not, it does seem an awful lot have died recently or are dealing with secondaries, when Caron Keating died it brought home to me how this illness does not discriminate, then we heard of dear Belinda Emmett passing away at age 30, then Soraya and many more in the public eye.
BUT as someone mentioned some do survive a long time, look at Koo Stark she had a very serious diagnosis back in 2002 and is seemingly ok, we just need to find an absolute cure though.
The paper I read yesterday did briefly mention that Wendy Richards has had bc twice in the past, but it seemed to suggest that the bone secondaries she has now developed are due to a recent diagnosis of kidney cancer.
Whatever the situation I feel terribly sad for her. She is getting married this week prior to starting chemo and I hope she has a day to remember.
Kelly
-x-
I think Wendy Richards has secondary breast cancer in bones and kidneys. Breast cancer can spread anywhere…kidneys are unusual but not unknown.
Jane
Breast cancer generally spreads to bones, liver, brain.
Wendy Richards if you are reading this I wish you the very best of good luck - you are in my prayers.
Jane is quite right… I know quite a few people with bc kidney involvement…and the eyes are another place where you can get mets.
Most common places are bones, liver, lungs and brain though.
I’ve had bone mets for a while…just in case Wendy or a friend of Wendy’s is reading this…I was diagnosed in 2003, in my early 40’s, but they had probably been there since 2002 or even 2001. I feel very well and live a normal life at the moment thanks to good responses to treatments.
xx
My apologies, the paper I have read today actually did indicate the spread was to kidneys and bones as a result of a breast cancer. Yesterday the same paper said she had kidney cancer which had spread to her bones!
Sorry for my earlier post,
Kelly
-x-
Cathy59 - A comment on a more positive note. Both my mother in law and my sister’s mother in law were diagnosed with breast cancer aged 50, had mastectomy and rads 28 years ago!!! Both are fit and healthy and I am sure there are many, many more women out there who have survived this and who will survive this.
You cannot go through life worrying about whether this will come back or not. We could get run over by a bus tomorrow. Nobody knows how long they have got so everyone must life their life to the full and God willing, we will all have many years ahead of us.
STAY POSITIVE!!!
Lesley xxx
Lesley,
Unfortunately many of the women posting on this thread DO have cancer that has returned and secondaries. Obviously too, many women do survive and we all have a story to tell of someone like your MIL. I could also tell you of the many women I have known personally, who are now dead from breast cancer. It is not always easy living your life to the full when you know that may mean not seeing your daughter reach double figures.
Positive thinking and health and fitness are no match for cancer cells.
Sorry, but that is how it is for many of us.
Jenny
Very best of luck to Wendy Richards!
I recently had a conversation with Breast Consultant on the subject of pre-existing condition regarding an insurance claim - she said they dont like to say, but its not a case of ‘if’ it comes back, its a case of ‘when’ - oh how I wish that’d been said to me a few years ago, my life would have been so different.
BTW the longest case that she had known was a gap of 34 years!!!
Absolutely agree Jenny and can only add: ‘Some of us have seen the bus and its not stopping.’
Jane