A Kirkbean woman is highlighting the importance of breast screening checks after her early-stage cancer was spotted in a routine scan.
And after successful surgery and radiotherapy, Laura Lammie is urging all women not to miss their regular mammogram appointments.
The Scottish NHS offers breast screening every three years to all women between 50 and 70 – and Laura, 56, had no inkling anything was amiss until her routine test last August spotted an abnormality.
Now fully recovered, Laura is full of praise for the rapid response and expertise of the NHS.
She told the News: “I was diagnosed on the back of a routine mammogram at DGRI.
“It was very quick – the week after I got a letter saying I should go for another check at Ayrshire Central Hospital in Irvine, the breast cancer screening centre for south west Scotland.
“A week later up at Irvine they took a biopsy and an did an extra mammogram and the nurses were really wonderful. I had to go back a week later for my results and they told me I had ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).
“I was lucky because the cancer had not spread anywhere else.
“I was still a bit shocked when they told me – but because I’m a clinician used to dealing with cancers in animals and reading pathology reports I was able to deal with it a bit more rationally.”
Laura, a local vet for more than three decades, from Prestonmill, was scheduled for a lumpectomy and within a month had surgery in Crosshouse Hospital at Kilmarnock where surgeons removed a three centimetre cylinder of tissue around the cancerous duct.
She said: “I got out that afternoon then I had two weeks off work.
“I then had a five days of radiotherapy in Edinburgh at the end of November to mop up anything missed.
“They put me up in a hotel next to the hospital.
“The daily sessions were only 10 minutes and I spent the week visiting museums and going shopping.
“My prognosis is excellent – when they did the surgery they said they had got everything.
“They are going to give me mammograms every year for the next five years just to make sure.
“It does hang over your head a little bit I suppose.
“But I have been so lucky because they picked it up at a very early stage.”
Laura added: “My most important message to women is please go for your mammogram.
“My kind of tumour would never have been found if I hadn’t gone.
“Detecting early tumours that can be sorted out and got rid of is so important.
“The care I received from nurses, doctors, surgeons and radiographers was great – both expert and totally sympathetic.”
Laura also paid tribute to Macmillan Cancer Support for providing vital additional information.
She said: “My recent experience with breast cancer proved to me that as good as the NHS can be I got lots of leaflets and information from Macmillan.
“It’s little things like having a map showing how to get to the Western General in Edinburgh for radiotherapy.
“As things turned out I did not need Macmillan nurses but other people I know find them to be invaluable.
“At DGRI they have a wee centre they can go to visit.
“It’s very useful for people to go and get more information not just patients but for the families affected – it can be even more distressing for them.”
