Breast Cancer Awareness Month is under way aiming to encourage women to be aware of the symptoms and raise money towards research. Reporter LOUISE TWEDDELL spoke to a Gravesham mayoress to discover how she coped after finding a cancerous lump ...

IT IS a subject most of us shy away from but for the 41,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year it is something they must face head on.

It was a reality Samantha Burgoine-Smith had to confront in July 2002 when she found a lump in her right breast and she remembers the day vividly.

The 37-year-old and her husband Richard, 54, had travelled from their home in Gravesend to attend a friend's wedding in Torquay.

It was also the day of their seventh wedding anniversary.

She recalled: "As a treat we'd booked into a hotel and I was looking out over a beautiful golf course when I found it.

"I told myself it was going to be nothing but a voice was telling me to get it checked."

That voice may have been Richard's sister Pat, who was diagnosed with breast cancer six months earlier.

Within two weeks Samantha was referred to Darent Valley Hospital, Darenth Wood Road, Dartford, where she had a mammogram and a needle biopsy.

"I knew they'd tell me it was cancer.

"My first reaction was to give Richard the opportunity to leave me there and then.

"I didn't want him to leave me halfway through but he stuck by me and has been fantastic.

"Afterwards I broke down and cried."

Samantha decided knowledge was power and read up on the options available to her.

With the help of doctors she decided to have a partial mastectomy to remove the cancerous cells and pressed ahead with surgery in September.

She said: "I was worried about waking up and looking at it.

"I thought I'd have a pea on one side and a potato on the other but it wasn't as bad as I had imagined."

The cancer was successfully removed but the journey was far from over and in early 2003 Samantha began a five-week course of radiotherapy.

She said: "It was my lowest moment.

"I was on a rollercoaster of emotions. One moment I was happy to be alive, the next I was asking why me?' "There were times I thought about death and wondered if I would make it."

After radiotherapy, the business adviser began a two-year programme of hormone therapy, with a series of injections every three months of a drug called Xoladex.

At 54, Richard's sister lost her battle in October 2003.

Samantha felt guilty and admits it was a frightening moment.

Pat's memory and her own role as Gravesham's mayoress between 2003 and 2004 are just two of the things which spurred her on.

Now clear of cancer for three years, she said: "I don't think you'll ever be totally free of cancer.

"You are always thinking it may come back but I am proud I have come so far."

Specialist treatment

KAREN Miles, a McMillan breast care nurse specialist at Darent Valley Hospital, has helped Samantha throughout her illness.

The hospital saw 157 new breast cancer patients between April last year and March this year.

She explained because Samantha's cancer was not aggressive she was able to have radiotherapy after the lump was removed.

Like an X-ray, radiotherapy targets the area which was cancerous and helps prevent it coming back.

Karen said: "Sam was given the hormone drug Xoladex because her cancer was caused by the hormone oestrogen, which all women have."

The drug stops the ovaries from producing oestrogen during treatment and reduces the chances of cancer returning.

It does not damage the ovaries, like chemotherapy can, so patients can still have children after treatment.

Death rates from breast cancer have fallen by a fifth in the UK in the past 10 years two-thirds of women diagnosed today can expect to live for at least 20 years.

For more information, visit cancerhelp.org.uk