Emily Grant shares her story to encourage other women to get lumps checked. Video / Dean Purcell
Emily Grant has spent the past 10 years looking after those with cancer, never imagining she would be diagnosed with the disease herself.
In March, aged 36, she was.
“I’d been an oncology nurse for a decade, and it’s been a surreal experience being on the other side of the bed,” she said.
The Aucklander mother of two is talking about her fight against breast cancer in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which began last week and is raising awareness and funds to fight the leading cause of death for Kiwi women aged under 65.
She discovered a lump in one of her breasts while putting on moisturiser in February, initially dismissing it as cyst because she was “too young” for breast cancer and didn’t have any family history of the disease, Grant said.
“But over the next two weeks, it didn’t go away. I became paranoid it was getting bigger, and I was checking it multiple times every day.
“I also had this nagging promise in the back of my mind that I’d made to my best friend about never being too paranoid to get something checked out.”
Emily Grant with daughters Adeline, 4, and Aria, 8. She was diagnosed with breast cancer aged 36. Only 8 per cent of cases in New Zealand are in under 40, but breast cancer can be aggressive in younger women.
Every year, about 3500 New Zealand women are diagnosed with breast cancer and 650 die from it. Although only 8 per cent of cases are in women aged under 40, the disease is sometimes more aggressive in younger women, according to the Breast Cancer Foundation.
The best friends made their promise to act on health concerns when another friend was weeks from death with bowel cancer, Grant said.
“She too was young, only 40 at the time. And it was because of her, we made a promise that we wouldn’t delay getting anything checked that worried us.”
Her first words to her GP were, “I’m probably being paranoid, but ... ”, Grant said.
“Luckily, she didn’t dismiss [the lump] as being a cyst.”
And although it also appeared to be benign on a mammogram, an ultrasound was requested “to be safe”.
That showed the lump was vascular which was abnormal, but the radiologist said they still weren’t convinced it was cancer, ordering a biopsy to make sure.
As an oncology nurse Emily Grant knows "all the code words" health professionals use when bad news is imminent. Photo / Dean Purcell
Again, she was told the lump looked benign.
But when she tried to find out the results a day early a nurse told her they were better discussed in person, and asked if she was bringing someone with her.
“As soon as she said those two things to me, I knew it wasn’t good news. I know those code phrases, I’d had to use similar things myself as an oncology nurse.
“[When] we walked in, there was the surgeon and a nurse in the room. I’d been that nurse … you never have a nurse in there as well if it’s benign. But I was still telling myself it wouldn’t be cancer. Until the surgeon told me it was, and it had spread to my lymph nodes.”
Emily Grant has had chemotherapy and a lumpectomy since being diagnosed with breast cancer in March, and radiation and oral chemotherapy is still to come.
Two days later, the friend with bowel cancer died.
“The timing seemed cruel. But it was her legacy that made me get checked and not dismiss it. I was going to fight this.”
Chemotherapy for the stage 2, grade 3 cancer began 12 days after diagnosis, followed by a lumpectomy a few weeks ago. Radiotherapy is next, with oral chemotherapy planned in to next year.
She was grateful for the support of her husband, and care of her oncologist, surgeon and “all the nurses”, including two of her former colleagues, Grant said.
“They were a godsend. It did make it seem more surreal, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
Emily and Mike Grant with their daughters, Aria, 8, and Adeline, 4. Photo / Dean Purcell
Grant is supporting awareness month by taking part in the Auckland Pink Ribbon Walk fundraiser next Sunday, to remind younger women they, too, can be affected, and to support cancer research, treatment and support services. A second Pink Ribbon Walk is planned in Christchurch on October 29.
“I know first-hand just how essential they are,” she said.
She also wanted to give her children a sense of what she had been going through, but as part of a fun community rather than a hospital visit.
“Being able to have them see just how many other people are part of someone’s journey, like they are, will be quite a special thing. Plus, the excuse for them to wear crazy pink outfits in public is too much for them to resist.”
Her husband, Mike, has been her rock, "supporting me in ways I didn’t know possible", Emily Grant says. Photo / Dean Purcell
She was determined to beat the cancer.
“For my girls, my husband, my friends, my family. For myself.”
Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.
