‘Together, We Can Beat Anything'

When Chantele Rashbrook was diagnosed with breast cancer, she became part of a community of courageous women whose support proved invaluable in her fight against the disease

- Lucy Laing And Cher Heasmer

Eight words. That was all it took to turn Chantele Rashbrook’s life upside down.

‘I’m really sorry, but you’ve got breast cancer,’ the doctor said gently, as Chantele sat opposite her in her office.

At first, the mum-of-two from Deal, Kent, struggled to comprehend what she was being told.

‘Are you sure?’ she asked, struggling to hold it together.

Chantele, 47, had found a small lump in her right breast two weeks before, in December 2011. She often got pains in her breasts before her period, and thought the lump was probably due to hormonal changes.

When she’d booked the appointment with the GP, it had been purely as a precaution.

She can’t recall much about the hours afterwards, only driving home in a daze. Her husband Phil, then 46, was working away in Grimsby as a Marine, and her children Charlie, then 13, and Lily, 11, were at school. Chantele waited until later that night to phone Phil and tell him.

‘We’ll fight this together,’ he promised. Phil rushed home the next day, and they told the kids together. Understandably, they were scared.

‘Wipe those tears,’ Chantele told them gently. ‘Mummy’s going to beat this.’

But it was all a front for her family’s sake. Deep down, Chantele was anxious, her thoughts rarely drifting far from the cancer and what it could mean for her family.

Would she even get to see her children grow up?

In June 2012, she had a single mastectomy ahead of six rounds of chemotherapy.