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St Michael's Breast Care Group

"We met on a hospital ward in 2001 – we’d both had mastectomies following breast cancer. We both agreed that we’d received excellent care from St Michael’s Hospital, so when the Royal Cornwall NHS Trust announced they were closing it because of a financial deficit, we felt really strongly that we had to do something about it.

We went to a lot of meetings and tried to get ourselves heard, but nothing worked. We were becoming really frustrated when someone suggested we go to Breakthrough’s Westminster Fly-In. We had no idea what to expect before we went, but the atmosphere was fantastic. Meeting so many people doing similar things gave us confidence and made us realise that we could make ourselves heard.

The Fly-In really kick-started our campaign. With the support of our local MP, Julia Goldsworthy – who we met at the Fly-In – we helped set up a visit with the then Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, and compiled a detailed report. The CAN team were incredibly supportive, particularly with identifying decision makers and how we could influence them.

Writing the report was exhausting and it took months – but it was worth it. We presented it to the Chief Executive of the Trust and within weeks he announced that he was reinstating breast cancer services at St Michael’s. We were over the moon! And we certainly couldn’t have done it without Breakthrough."