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Breast ScreeningArrow
Age 50-59
Interview 23  

Interview 23

Age at Interview: 52
Background: A housewife, married with no children.
Brief outline:Attended for first routine mammogram at age 51. Was diagnosed with DCIS. Had a mastectomy and is taking tamoxifen.


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Had not heard of DCIS before she was told she had it.

 



So we went off to the hospital which was some distance away and still no problems and there was the same radiographer that I saw at the mobile unit and she showed me what they were looking at and she just called it 'chalk'. That's all I knew.

And then I had to wait and see the consultant radiologist and he did an ultrasound and then said, mentioned pre-cancerous cells and said "we'll do a biopsy and we can do it now" and I just thought "Bloody hell they're looking for cancer" [laughs]. 

So I phoned up NHS direct, phoned up Breast Cancer Care, only knew it was called 'chalk', had no other information. Oh and they'd mentioned calcifications, so that was the only thing I could mention.

Because I'd been, heard about pre-cancerous cells my husband did ask him if it was something leading up to cancer or cancer and he said it was cancer. They took us to see the breast care sister and she gave us a piece of paper with 'DCIS' on. That was it. That was all we knew. And we had to make a decision [about when to have the mastectomy] based on that. 
Jenni Murray - Cancer
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