It's so vital to know your body - and keep yourself fit

Mum-of-three shares her breast cancer story ahead of city's fundraising walk

- HELENA VESTY

AS Nik Statham sat cooling down after a shower last November, she noticed something was slightly different.

The mum-of-three spotted a subtle change to her right breast. She felt that it looked like the breast had slightly deflated but couldn't feel anything like a lump - with her hands, but she knew.

Her doctor was also unable to find a lump, or see anything worrying. But as a precaution, Nik was sent to the breast clinic where yet more nurses were also unable to see anything to raise their concerns.

After a mammogram and ultrasound, the radiologist immediately spotted something worrying and sent Nik for a biopsy. An agonising 10-day wait followed, when Nik was given the news she had been dreading.

The 55-year-old medical secretary from Great Moor, Stockport, had a malignant tumour in her right breast.

In January this year, she had a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

After initially being told she may need radiotherapy, which would mean missing her daughter's wedding in Las Vegas, Nik I was told the cancer had been caught early and not spread to the lymph nodes, so radiotherapy wasn't needed.

Nik said: "My experience shows that it's important to know your own body and what looks normal for you. The change to my breast was so subtle that nobody else apart from me was able to see it.

"It might have been a different story if I hadn't gone to the GP as I wasn't due a mammogram for some time."