'Know your normal' says Derry woman diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant

Yvonne Doran from Carnhill found a lump in her left breast when she was 26 weeks pregnant with her first child. Her daughter Maggie, has just turned two.

"Covid had just hit and I had cysts in that breast before so I didn’t want to bother the doctors. As I got further on in the pregnancy, the lump got bigger so I decided then to contact my GP and they brought me in that day for an examination. I had no other symptoms apart from the lump so I was told it was highly unlikely that I would have cancer.

"I was sent to the Breast Clinic in Altnagelvin two weeks later, when I was 26 weeks pregnant. Because of Covid, I had to go alone. The Breast Clinic is a one-stop-shop so they do all the tests in one day; an ultrasound, a mammogram and biopsies. After the tests, the numbers in the waiting room started to dwindle, then, it was just me left. I was taken in by a surgeon and a breast-care nurse and I was told that he was certain it was cancer and that they had a plan of action in place already. I was to have surgery within two weeks.

"I was a bit of a mess so the breast-care nurse bent the regulations and brought my husband over to the breast clinic for me. The breast care nurses were a shining light for me. Because you couldn’t bring family or friends in with you, they took on that role.”

Yvonne had a lumpectomy and lymph node removal in August 2020. “I couldn’t have anyone in with me so my husband dropped me off and I went in on my own. I remember waking up from surgery and the first thing I asked was, ‘Is my baby okay?’"

Yvonne’s husband Eamonn was able to go with her to some of the baby scans, which wasn’t allowed at the time because of Covid restrictions. It was arranged that Eamonn would be with her when she woke from her mastectomy but a Covid outbreak on the ward meant she had to recover alone. Being pregnant, Yvonne was unable to get a reconstruction but the obstetrics team checked the baby after surgery to reassure her that everything was okay. Yvonne was brought in to be induced at 34 weeks.

"Because I was so early, the induction wasn’t successful so I had a C-section the following week at 35 weeks,” she said. “I was allowed to meet Eamonn outside for an hour a day but I had to spend the rest of the week in hospital on my own. The doctors had always told me that there was a possibility that the baby would need a wee bit of help because she would be so early but, after a wee spell in the incubator, she was absolutely great. Maggie was born on October 5, 2020 at 5 lb 10 oz. Getting Maggie here safe was the first milestone in my treatment.”

Yvonne started chemo two weeks later on October 22. “I was like a rabbit in the headlights – if it wasn’t for the emotional support of the nurses in the Sperrin Unit, I don’t think I would have gotten through that first day of chemo. I had six rounds of chemotherapy and had to do it all by myself with no visitors. That was tough, emotionally, when you have to rely on other patients and nurses for support. The chemo drug that I was on could leach through your bodily fluids so, after my first round of chemo, I couldn’t touch Maggie. All I wanted to do was cuddle her and I had to ask my husband to give her a kiss for me.

“I finished my chemotherapy in March 2021. I’m now on hormone therapy for possibly the next ten years. My cancer was hormone receptive, so I had my ovaries removed in July last year to help reduce the risk of it reoccuring. I couldn’t freeze eggs because I was pregnant and had to start chemo straight away because my cancer was grade 3 aggressive. I will do everything I can now to be here for Maggie.”

Yvonne is taking part in a new research project at Queen’s University to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

“I think the research that Breast Cancer Now is doing is so important,” she said. “It’s not about looking at what was done wrong but looking at people’s personal experiences of going through cancer treatment during covid.They’re looking at how things can be improved, what can be learnt from it and how things can be made better in the future. Everybody is different and everybody’s cancer is different. The more we can learn from those experiences the better.

"I always thought breast cancer was something older women get. When I was told I had cancer, I remember apologising to my husband because he had told me weeks before to go and get checked. If something in my mind hadn’t clicked, someone else could be telling my story now.

"If, by speaking about this, I can get just one other person to check themselves regularly, know their normal, and get it checked if something comes up, it’s all worth it.”

Breast Cancer Now is there for anyone affected by breast cancer, providing support for today and hope for the future. Find out more at breastcancernow.org.