"Hester is a very good friend of mine. I met her about a year after she had been diagnosed, and when she told me what had happened to her, I could not believe it: she is such a happy, fun young woman, always with a smile on her face, that is was really strange thinking she just went through such a difficult time.
Hester says "I was diagnosed with breast cancer on 23rd December at the age of 27. I had a radical left mastectomy with full auxiliary clearance on the 28th December 2004. I was discharged from the hospital on 31st December 2004. I had four cycles of chemotherapy which started in January 2005. After my initial treatments I was put on Zoladex and Aromasin for nearly three years to block estrogen, as my breast cancer was estrogen positive. This put me into menopause, which was quite difficult to deal with in your 20's.
I was very fortunate as my boyfriend at the time and my family were very supportive. We got married in October 2005 and even though my hair was still very short after the chemo, it was such a perfect day and something I will remember for the rest of my life.
I was told by my oncologist that because of the chemo, there might be a 50% chance that we might not be able to have children, so I made sure that my husband knew this before he married me. After nearly three years of taking the hormone suppressant medication to block the estrogen, we had a lot of discussions with my lovely oncologist and we decided that we wanted to start a family if possible. So I was taken off the medication for nearly 9 months, and then we started trying for a family.
I am very happy to tell you that we now have a lovely, miraculous 14month old girl.
So breast cancer has changed my life completely, but for the better. I now live every day to the fullest and realised that family and friends are the most important thing in life."
