A conversation with Jackie Cooper – EMEA Product Manager on her breast Cancer journey and recent qualification in Positive Psychology… March 2021
Walk All Over Cancer Spotlight – Edition 1 Jackie thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience with Team Schein and to raise awareness on such an important topic, our health and wellbeing has never been so important and the Pandemic has been a real eye opener for many of us. Just this week the headlines have been flooded with news reports of an estimated 11,000 people could have undiagnosed breast cancer amid Covid-19 and so if we can help to raise awareness and to remove some of the fear around talking about cancer that would be a fantastic achievement within our Team Schein community. When did you receive your breast cancer diagnosis and at what age? I was diagnosed last year with invasive breast cancer in the middle of May 2020, not long after we went into lockdown at the young age of 54. How was the cancer initially detected? I discovered a lump and although I had previously had lumps (as we ladies do) I felt a bit different about this one so called the doctor the next morning expecting him to say that there were no face to face appointments, but to his credit he asked me to come straight down to the surgery. He then put me at ease as he felt it was not sinister and probably hormonal but he said he would send me to the hospital on a 2 week priority list for a mammogram and ultrasound.
With the doctors words ringing in my head I was a bit blaze and relaxed when I attended the hospital appointment which was only reinforced by sailing through the mammogram (my cancer is invisible to a mammogram) I was very shocked when they discovered a sinister image on the ultrasound and I was immediately pinned down to receive 3 biopsies and a metal clip inserted into the tumour (that they now named it). Then started a very strange wait for the biopsy results which was a tough one as your mind automatically thinks the worst and so I felt a bit lost and out of control. But I decided to tell my teenage boys that same evening as I felt that they should walk this path with me and by giving them the facts this will empower them so I sat them down on my return to say this has a 50/50 chance of going either way! (actually I had already been told to expect the worst but felt that getting them used to the idea gradually was a healthier way to deal with their emotions).
“I have learnt through this experience to let go of my inhibitions and live my life to the full” How did you feel when you first received the news? After another 2 weeks (full month of waiting) I was called to the consultant’s office to see what the full diagnosis was and after waiting a 2 hour delay for my appointment (Covid-19 delays were huge at that time) I had worked through my stress and was pretty calm as he sat me down and told me of the type and the treatment ahead. It felt like a dream to be honest, like it was happening to someone else, but the team were amazing and I was ushered into the office of the Breast Cancer Nurse and given lots of reading