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of the world lifted off her shoulders and she describes tackling the two years of treatment as an adventure. It started with eight cycles of chemo to shrink the lump, followed by Herceptin injections every three weeks all of which involved flying over to London. And after finding out she carried the BRCA2 gene (made ‘famous’ by Angelina Jolie) Laura decided that a double mastectomy and the removal of her ovaries was the right action to take.
aura Mowat says she was born with a smile on her face and a can-do attitude, and it is this which has certainly helped her through what for anyone would have been a harrowing couple of years. She would be the first to admit that when she first thought she’d found a pea size lump in her breast in October 2014 it was probably nothing to worry about. It was small and she couldn’t always feel it. So wasn’t until the following January that she finally went to her GP and, true to form, even when she was referred for a mammogram she didn’t tell anyone about her concerns to save unnecessarily worrying them. “It wasn’t until I went back for the results in March that I was told I had breast cancer,” says Laura. “I sat in my car afterwards feeling slightly shocked and tearful wondering how to break this to my Mum who’d been through it all with my Dad who lost his fight with cancer a few years ago and I decided then and there to be the strong one and that this was the kick up the bum I needed to get fit and healthy!” If you’ve ever eaten at Tanroagan, the Boatyard or the Swiss House – her familyrun restaurants - you’ll have noticed Laura. She’s the one with the flamboyant hair, the glamorous make-up – and the big smile. “I dreaded the thought of having chemo and losing my hair but then I discovered a company called ‘Wig Glamour’ on eBay and found a way of embracing it in a fun way” she continues. That attitude also dictated how she approached telling everyone. Her hair became the talking point for customers and enabled Laura to speak openly about her cancer and to listen to other people’s experiences and advice. The restaurants provide health insurance for their management and after Laura’s father passed away her mother made sure she and her brother were added to it. “Nobles hospital diagnosed my cancer but after duplicate tests and seeing two different doctors they still did not tell me if I could be cured or not,” she says. “I was also told it would be weeks or months before having further tests, scans and seeing a visiting consultant so it was at this point my Mum and I decided we needed to act fast and find help elsewhere.” And Laura will be eternally grateful to a customer who recommended consultant Justin Stebbing at The Harley Street Clinic to her. “I feel like the luckiest person in the world for having health insurance and being able to use private health care” she says. “I was able to fly to London, have a consultation, have multiple scans, tests and an operation and start chemo within four days. I owe them my life.” Once Laura heard the words “you can be cured” from her consultant, the weight BECAUSE QUALITY MATTERS
Words by: Suzy Holland Photos: Shan Fisher - www.shansphoto.com Styling: Laura Mowat
“ I am very self-
conscious and don’t like how I appear in photos, but if one woman looks at me and doesn’t delay going to the doctor with an ‘insignificant’ lump, then it’s worth it
.”
“The chemo made me really sick, so I would book a hotel room nearby and ride it out until the morning. I would fly over in advance and make full use of the opportunity to go shopping, eat in fantastic restaurants, go to the theatre, meet friends and make the most of having a couple of days off work before going for treatment knowing that for the next two weeks I would be poorly.” Laura has blogged her whole journey on Facebook using only positivity, wit and humour, along with graphic, honest photos detailing every stage of treatment allowing friends and family to be with her every step of the way, and she says that the love, support and encouragement from everyone was overwhelming. Since her diagnosis Laura has learnt a lot about the importance of a health and overall wellbeing and is making constant changes to her lifestyle, by eating more healthily, exercising and practicing mindfulness. And there is good news: “I’ve just completed my two years of treatment and have been given the allclear, and after a couple of reconstruction operations later this year it will just be regular check-ups.” Laura was surprisingly shy, and worried, about having her photograph taken for Gallery, and being the cover girl for ‘This Girl Can’. “I am very self-conscious and don’t like how I appear in photos,” she says, “but if one woman looks at me and doesn’t delay going to the doctor with an ‘insignificant’ lump, then it’s worth it.” Woman are constantly told that if they discover a lump it needs to get be checked immediately, but why you should do this isn’t highlighted. Laura’s experience shows that even once you put yourself in the system - along with thousands of others you will have to wait for appointments, to have tests, to see the doctors, to get your results, to have the scans, to have your treatment, and as Laura says, “You don’t have time to wait, cancer doesn’t wait, it spreads! The longer you put off getting checked the more advanced the illness becomes, the more medication you will need, the more invasive the operations, the bigger the fight with less chance you have of beating it.”
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