‘Women need to make their wellbeing an absolute priority’

Earlier this month, 53-year-old Trisha Bonham Corcoran underwent single mastectomy and reconstruction surgery following a shock diagnosis of breast cancer in July.

A BREAST cancer survivor from Bective is urging women to look after their health after a mammogram appointment she had been putting off saved her life.

Earlier this month, 53-year-old Trisha Bonham Corcoran underwent single mastectomy and reconstruction surgery following a shock diagnosis of breast cancer in July.

The funeral celebrant who failed to attend a mammogram appointment two years ago due to her hectic schedule now wants to use her story to encourage women not to neglect their health and to take advantage of all tests and checks available to them. She said:

“The doctor told me that no physician would have been able to detect the cancer there without the mammogram. I was told if I had waited another two years, it would have gone too far.

“The mammogram saved my life.

“Considering how flippant I was about my own health I am now passionate that women take their health seriously.

“For women, everybody’s else’s needs come first but the thing is you are no good to any of them if you are dead.

“Look after yourself first then you can look after everyone else, women need to make their wellbeing an absolute priority.”

Lockdown inspired Trisha to re-examine her life and she changed career from a prop maker to a funeral celebrant, she also began to focus on her wellbeing as she explains:

“I got my first invite for a mammogram after I turned 50 and at the time, I was renovating my house.

“I had an arrogant attitude to looking after myself, I thought I don’t need that, and I put it off and then earlier this year I suppose I started throughout lockdown to look at things and took a new direction and one of things that I really had to be truthful about is looking after myself.

“I got my first mammogram on the 6th July and then I got a call back about four or five weeks later saying that they wanted to do an ultrasound to be sure because an anomaly had shown up.

“I was completely blasé, went to the Breast Check in the Mater, they did an ultrasound and said they weren’t one hundred percent happy, and they wanted to do a biopsy.

“I hadn’t any symptoms, I was tired, but I put that down to coming out of lockdown and life getting back on track and I had some cramps, but I thought that was probably down to hormones.

“They did the biopsy and the nurse said what we are seeing is little calcifications in the breast ducts and this is called Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS) it hasn’t moved from breast ducts into breast tissue, so this is what is called pre-cancerous.

“She said that they just needed to remove the little calcification and in my head I thought it was like getting a mole removed or something.”

Trisha returned to the Mater a week later to have a consultation with the doctor and was given news she never could have imagined receiving.

“The doctor explained to me that because the cancer was in the ducts it went from my nipple all the way up to my arm pit and said while most of the cells seem to be non-invasive, there are some cells we are concerned about and there is so much of an area that we are removing at least half the breast and his recommendation was a full mastectomy.

“I found myself in there completely floored. I would have bet my house that I was fine and there was nothing wrong with me, it was a complete shock.

“From going in there in my mind to having a pimple removed to being told that your whole breast had to go was just didn’t compute in my head.” After spending a number of weeks coming to terms with the news, the Bective woman, underwent a single mastectomy and reconstruction surgery on October 9th.

“I made peace with it because I knew this was going to save my life,” she said.

“As long as the cancer hasn’t gone into the lymph nodes, I won’t need radiation or chemotherapy and that is what I am hoping and praying for.

“Women don’t give themselves enough credit for all that they do, they really do keep it all turning but If they don’t start looking after themselves it will be too late.

“There is nothing more precious than life and being able to be able to wake up each morning.”