A MUM diagnosed with inoperable secondary breast cancer has spoken out to raise awareness of the illness.

Carol Andrews, who lives in the Heatherlands area of Ferndown, faces an uncertain future after learning the cancer has spread to her ribs, liver, breastplate and a lung.

She was initially diagnosed with breast cancer in February last year after a freak car accident with a priest.

Her husband of eight years, Martin, said: “Carol was involved in a car crash with a retired reverend, and she went to the doctor with a pain in her chest and he got it checked out.

“When the results came back, we were told it was breast cancer. It does make you think that she was so lucky to be in that car crash – otherwise we might not have known.”

Mrs Andrews went through chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a single mastectomy in 2012.

But around 10 months after her treatment finished, she began to have pain again, and further tests revealed the cancer had spread.

She said: “I now have chemotherapy three times a week as well as a drug called Avastin, which is used to treat secondary breast cancer.

“I go to Poole Hospital for treatment, and they’ve been absolutely brilliant. It’s such a wonderful environment and even on the hardest days, the nurses there can still make me laugh.”

Mrs Andrews, 38, is on sick leave from her job at a teaching assistant as Oakhurst Comm-unity Primary School in West Moors.

Her seven-year-old daughter Tamara attends the school.

She said: “Tamara is aware of everything that’s been going on, and has been absolutely fantastic about it.

“We wanted to talk about this publically because there just isn’t the awareness about secondary forms of cancer. There are lots of support groups for people who have breast cancer, but just one or two for those with secondary breast cancer.”

Her husband, a regional representative of the VW T4 Forum, said: “It’s such a shock to get a diagnosis like that.

“I was in a daze for around two weeks afterwards. Your head is just so full of ‘What ifs’ but you have to keep going.”

Fundraising day

An event to raise funds for the family and Macmillan Caring Locally in Christchurch will take place at Pamphill Parish Hall near Wimborne on Sunday, November 24, starting at 2pm.
 

Admission to Carol’s Christmas Cruise is £1 for adults and 50p for children, and will feature skittles, a DJ, an auction and a whole lot more.