She lost her 37-year-old niece to it, was diagnosed with the disease herself and now her sister is battling breast cancer. Sunset walker Chris Bisson talks to Gemma Hockey about her family’s struggle FOUR years after the tragic loss from breast cancer of her young niece and following her own subsequent battle with the disease, this year brought more bad news for Chris Bisson and her family.
In January her sister, 71-year-old Eileen, who had nursed daughter Sam before she died in 2003, found a lump.
‘She said that she had a gut feeling and couldn’t let this one slip,’ said Chris, 57.
‘She had a mammogram and they found a small cancerous lump.’
Eileen had a lumpectomy and is now completing her final sessions of radiotherapy.
‘It’s good to know they don’t write you off at 71,’ said Chris. ‘Knowing what Eileen has been through, she has been fantastic and pretty upbeat with it all.’
Her sister is so far winning her battle with the disease but it’s been a long journey since the day Sam, aged just 36 and the mother of two little boys, was diagnosed.
She had found a lump in her breast four months after having her second baby, Luke, and put it down to mastitis.
But she decided to go for a screening and in 2002 was diagnosed with an aggressive cancerous tumour.
‘Right from the beginning Sam’s prognosis wasn’t a positive one,’ said Chris.
‘With such an aggressive tumour, she had chemotherapy, then a mastectomy, followed by radiotherapy - it just escalated from there and after 14 months of ongoing treatment, we lost Sam in the December.’
Just four months later, Chris had to summon all her strength - now she had her own battle to fight.
Luckily she had the support of her husband, Andy, daughter, Kjirstie, 23, and sons, Stuart, 27, Jody, 29, and Matt, 32.
‘It was all very surreal,’ she said.
‘I went for a routine mammogram. I’d had two previously which were both fine, so I had no reason to doubt this one. But they found an area of calcification.
‘I had a biopsy, which proved, ironically, the area of calcification that they had found was benign, but the surrounding tissue wasn’t, so it should not really have been picked up.
‘I was very lucky, I had no lumps and the area felt no different -
if the calcification had not been detected in the mammogram, it might have been too late. I didn’t feel any different from normal.’
Chris was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ.
In patients who are diagnosed with that, the cells lining the milk ducts are cancerous, but stay contained within them without growing into the surrounding breast tissue.
DCIS may affect just one area of the breast, but can be more widespread and affect different areas at the same time.
Sometimes, it may be described as pre-cancerous, pre-invasive, non-invasive, or intraductal cancer.
‘In my case, surgery was the best option,’ said Chris.
She underwent a mastectomy, but was not treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
She said the whole experience was a bit of a blur.
‘I think because it was so soon after Sam, I really didn’t believe it was happening to me.
‘Because of what she had had to go through, I felt so lucky to be given a chance.
‘Andy was with me all the way and so were Kjirstie and the boys.’
However, there was one key person in whom Chris felt, initially, unable to confide.
‘When I found out about the surgery, I couldn’t tell Sam’s mum, Eileen, my sister and best friend. I just couldn’t do that to her.
‘At that time, we spoke every day on the phone and when she called, the day of my biopsy, Andy had to tell a lie and tell her that I wasn’t around.
‘I didn’t speak to her for 24 hours, which was a long time for us. But when I got the results and found out that I had breast cancer, I had to tell her.
‘You couldn’t really hide a mastectomy from your sister.
‘If Eileen had been the first, I think I would have been gutted, knowing what we have been through.’
Eileen lives in Basingstoke but luckily Kjirstie was visiting her at the time and was with her when Chris broke the news.
‘I went over to see her the next week and reassured her that the cancer wasn’t the same as Sam’s and that my prognosis was totally different.’
Four years on, Chris is counting her blessings.
She believes that her niece is watching over the women in her family.
‘Even though Sam is no longer with us, we know she is always looking out for us.
‘We just feel Sam’s our guiding light,’ she said.
Chris believes that without the routine check-up and early detection, her journey would have been different.
‘Without the screening, I don’t know where I would be now. My life has changed massively in three years, with family engagements, weddings and two wonderful grandsons, Jude and Harry.
‘I would have missed so much. I’m so incredibly lucky,’ she said.
‘I think this is why Eileen and I have dealt with our breast cancer in the same way. We have lost someone very, very special to us, not just Eileen and me but the whole family. We have got to find good in everything because of it.’Chris is an integral member of the Pink Ladies’ breast cancer support group and women who are new to it, especially young ones with children, find great comfort in her words of wisdom.
She will be taking part in the Sunset Coastal Walk on Saturday 23 June.
‘It’s just fantastic to be with friends who understand what you have been through because they have been through it themselves.
‘Eileen goes to a similar support group in the UK which Sam had gone to and she finds comfort in the support it gives.
‘At first I didn’t really think the Pink Ladies was going to be for me, but it’s great.
‘It’s so nice to be with a group of girls whom you wouldn’t normally come across in day-to-day life.
‘Breast cancer is the last thing we talk about sometimes and with everything going on with organising the walk, we’ve all grown even closer.
‘I think it’s great that the money raised will go towards the cost of treatment of lymphoedema for breast cancer patients, not just for the Pink Ladies, but all island women,’ she said.
Chris hasn’t suffered from the condition, which is a side effect of a mastectomy that can cause chronic swelling of the arms following damage to the lymphatic drainage system.
The condition affects one in five patients.
There is no cure, but the result of swelling from the condition can be controlled by massage, which many patients must pay for themselves.
Each session by a trained therapist costs £60 and so far the Pink Ladies have given £40,000 towards treatments.
Chris’s concern now is for her daughter, Kjirstie. ‘There is no genetic link between the three of us getting breast cancer but in the back of my mind there’s a constant nagging feeling when there have been three family members, all different ages, diagnosed.
The best we can do is get her into early screening programmes,’ she said.
Chris believes early diagnosis and treatment were key in saving her and Eileen’s life.
She wants all women to feel confident about checking their breasts for lumps or changes and seek help immediately if they discover something abnormal.
‘Breast cancer is not something we can afford to keep in the background. It’s the sort of thing that you think will never happen to you.
We have to be open about the disease and to check ourselves regularly.
‘If any woman - regardless of age - is ever worried about a change in her breast tissue or she think that she may have felt a lump, then she should feel comfortable about approaching her doctor. She will never be turned away.’
* For more information about ductal carcinoma in situ, visit
http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Cancertype/Breast/DCISLCIS/DCIS
Article posted on 25th May, 2007 - 12.00am
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