Record
October 30 2013
The
Your Local Dealership
Further AvonGo City Ford
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Cnr Main South Rd & Epsom Rd Sockburn | Christchurch P 03 348 4129 or 0800 655 551 Rangiora Service Centre | 78 Ivory Street P 03 313 7059 | avoncityford.co.nz
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The many signs of breast cancer by Belinda Cullen-Reid
A casual comment from her husband as she hopped out of the shower may have saved the life of 47-year-old Selwyn resident Val Evans.
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Cup & Show Week P8–10
“My husband noticed a bruise on my breast. I had a look and saw a faint discolouration and tiny puckering,” Val said. October’s breast cancer awareness campaign has highlighted the need to be aware of changes in nipples, skin, breast shape and size or unusual breast pain. “I never thought to look for a bruise,” she said. “The earlier you get it the better. Look for anything different. Any changes at all. A pucker, a dent, a dimple.” Val had been vigilant at checking for lumps and had undergone a mammogram the year before. “I felt under the bruised area and could feel that there was a decent size lump. I knew the lump had grown very quickly and in the last four months.” Knowing things were not right she booked in to see her doctor the next morning. “I could tell by the doctor’s expression that things were serious. I was sent in to have a mammogram that day. He didn’t tell me, but I knew it was cancer.” Val was given a mammogram, an ultrasound and then the following day a biopsy was taken. Four days later she was told the results of the biopsy — Grade 3 hormone positive cancer. “Hormone cancers feed from the hormones. That’s why it grew so quickly.” An MRI revealed the presence of a second lump deep in the chest wall. “My first reaction was that the breast had to go, and the other one as well.
Val Evans, seated, celebrates her early diagnosis and successful breast cancer surgery with friend and supporter Diana Kermode
I wanted them both off but the doctor said the other one was fine and it would affect healing time.” Everything was happening very quickly. Two days after the MRI Val had her surgery. “It was like I was on a train going 100 miles an hour. I didn’t know if it was ever going to stop.” Surgery involved removing the breast and scrapping all tissue off back to the
chest wall. Twenty lymph nodes were also removed to find out if the cancer had spread. Tests revealed that none of the lymph nodes were infected. This meant that Val has not needed follow-up treatment such as chemotherapy. Val is currently having three monthly check-ups. “I’ve learnt to live for today and to find something good about every day.”
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