I WAS diagnosed with Stage 3 Her2 positive breast cancer. This type of breast cancer occurs in 20% of those diagnosed with the disease. Being Her2 +ve means that there is a protein in your system that drives the cancer to grow. BY TENDAYI GWATA Some breast cancers are estrogen positive and progesterone positive which means their growth is hormone driven and some are Triple-negative breast cancer, which means they are negative for estrogen and progesterone, and the protein Her2. Triple negative breast cancer is one of the most aggressive types of breast cancer and most difficult to treat. I first discovered the lump in my breast one morning, because it actually hurt. It was a kind of throbbing pain and I could feel a lump. I remember not being too sure and thinking it could just be one of those monthly menstrual lumps you sometimes get. I had no reference point because I hadn’t been very good about doing my monthly self-checks and my annual mammogram and scan. So I went to the trauma centre, where they sent me for a scan. They confirmed the diagnosis through a number of things, firstly I had an ultrasound scan, and then from the scan they did a mammogram, which gave a clearer indication, that it could be cancer. So from there I needed to have a biopsy. At that point, I was informed that because it was in the breast area and also because it was quite a large lump, I would need a plastic surgeon to remove the lump. That’s when I discovered that we have two plastic surgeons servicing the whole country and that both at the time were not in the country and not due back within the next couple of weeks. Panic ensued. My family and I sat down to weigh the options and we decided that I would seek medical assistance in South Africa. Which turned out to have been a very good decision, because at the initial scan my tumour was 4cm wide and 1cm high and three weeks later at my last scan before starting treatment it had grown to 4x5cm in size. The cancer had also spread to my armpit. The biopsy was done with local anesthetic, so I was awake which was scary. The radiologist, who did the scan was a no nonsense, straight talking type of doctor, I remember asking her how bad she thought it was and her exact words were: “My dear you are in for a very rough time”. They did both a core needle and fine needle biopsy, both are basically a needle that is pushed through your skin and flesh to the area in question and a sample is retrieved for testing. The difference between the two is that a fine needle biopsy uses a fine needle and syringe to take a sample of cells and a core needle biopsy uses a hollow needle to get a sample of breast tissue and because tissue is taken rather than cells, it gives more detailed information. These samples were then tested and this is where they were able to confirm that it was indeed breast cancer. I then had to wait a couple of days while they did the tests on the samples they had taken. Eventually on Friday morning, I went to meet my surgeon who sat me down gave me the confirmation. I remember my vision goi