A moment that changed me: the chance to use new life-saving cancer drugs

A stroke of luck at a bleak time meant I got to take the ground-breaking Herceptin. It allowed me to live, and follow my dream of becoming an author

Though I loved being an English teacher, my dream from childhood was to be a writer. Aged 34, I was head of English in a secondary school, newly married, and about to start a family. Just three weeks after the wedding I found something strange in my right breast. It was more of a mass than a lump.

On the 11 November 2004 at 1.35pm, I was told I had cancer. The words I remember were "no cure", "mastectomy", and "breast cancer and pregnancy don't mix" - all said in the same sentence.

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