LIFE'S SIMPLE PLEASURES

When Laura Price, 40, found her cancer had returned, she decided to make the most of the little things

- LAURA PRICE

Waiting for the doctor in the hospital consulting room, I felt numb. I knew what was coming, yet a tiny  part of me hoped I was mistaken. Then the oncologist walked in and said, ‘It's not good news,’ shattering all the hope I had left.

He explained the breast cancer I thought I’d been cured of 10 years earlier had been lurking in my body all along, and a potato-sized tumour had taken root in my sternum bone. I had stage-four breast cancer – it was treatable but incurable.

I’d gone into the room alone to try to protect my partner Mark, and was dreading telling him – we’d only been together just over a year. After I came out, we sat on a bench and I broke the news. Mark, 48, was shocked – he hadn’t allowed himself to think the worst. But within minutes, he put on a brave face, reassuring me that we could get through anything.

When given a life-limiting diagnosis, lots of people write a bucket list. But as I sobbed in Mark’s arms, I didn’t want a trip to the Seychelles or to go bungee jumping; I wanted to hold him and enjoy the simple pleasures many take for granted, like lying on the sofa watching Gogglebox with a plateful of food and our cats, Cosme and Cleo, on our laps.

STOLEN CHOICE 

I was first diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2012, aged 29, after finding a lump in my left breast. Even though I’d had several misdiagnoses and it took four months to be diagnosed, I was lucky as the cancer hadn’t spread beyond my breast and was curable.