Kate Butler: My cancer rollercoaster

Hi guys

Let me take you back to the beginning…..29th December 2016.

Once upon a time, while making a white sauce for a turkey pie, I received the phone call that would change the rest of my life forever.

A phone call which also means I haven’t been able to make a white sauce since. Mind you, any excuse as I hate cooking and usually leave it to my husband Tim! But I digress….

After having breast cancer eight years previously aged 32, I thought I was ‘out of the woods’. But not long after turning 40 I got a severe pain in my chest.

My best friend Susie said I should tell my breast consultant. I did, and he sent me a for a bone scan where they inject you with radioactive dye and after three hours scan your whole body.

Then came a CT scan where they inject you with dye (which makes you feel like you’ve wet yourself as it affects your bladder) while you are fed through what looks like a huge Krispy Kreme doughnut and you are asked to ‘hold your breath’.

It was my consultant on the phone. This can’t be good.

He says: ‘I’m really sorry, but your cancer has come back’.

A wave of prickly heat comes over me. I feel queasy, numb in the head and my mouth goes as dry as the bottom of a budgie's cage.

I put the phone down. I tell Tim. We hold each other. We can't believe it.

I call Susie. She can't believe it either and says we can go over to her house if we want to talk.

The turkey pie is cooked. We manage to eat a few mouthfuls.

We head to Susie's. We go over what's been said.

Can this really be happening?

Until next week readers, Kate. xx