Melanie Rose was reaching for a packet of nappies when she received the call that would bring her entire world crashing down.
She had been diagnosed with Triple-negative Breast Cancer.
The words rang in her ears as Melanie left the supermarket, grappling with the enormity of what lay ahead.
She'd discovered the lump a few days earlier, after feeling a bruise-like ache while playing with her 15-month-old daughter.
Doctors thought it was a cyst, but suggested an ultrasound just in case, that ultimately revealed the devastating diagnosis.
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Triple-negative breast cancer is aggressive, and accounts for around 10 per cent of breast cancer diagnosis. It's fast-growing, and often spreads beyond the breast before diagnosis.
Melanie's cancer would need to be treated with a type of chemotherapy known as the Red Devil. "That's exactly what it feels like," she says.
She would also need a lumpectomy and possibly a double mastectomy.
After discovering her cancer had spread to her lymph nodes, Melanie had those removed first, then commenced several months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She was also put into chemical menopause.
"It's horrific," says the mother of two. " I didn't know if I would be around to see my eldest go off to primary school."
"My daughter saved my life."
Melanie was told that if she hadn't discovered the lump in September, she would not have lived to see Christmas Day.
"Triple negative is the fastest growing type of breast cancer. It's pretty rare to get it, but those that do get it are often under 40," says Melanie, who was 38 when she was diagnosed.
Further tests revealed Melanie carried the BRCA2 gene, meaning her risk of recurrence was high, and a double mastectomy was recommended.
"It's a really daunting idea that they're going to take something that you've just used to feed your children, and that makes you a woman," she says.
"But you almost don't have a choice because it's going to save you, and keep you around to see those children grow up."
After undergoing counselling to ensure she was strong enough to see herself without breasts, Melanie was told that because she'd endured such intense cancer treatments, the best option would be to have the double mastectomy, and worry about reconstruction down the track.
Melanie was moving on autopilot, following doctor's orders and grateful to be given a second chance at life. So, she followed their advice.
"Three years later, I'm still waiting."
What the doctors didn't explain to Melanie, was that if you opt to have a reconstruction when you're technically "cancer free", your category changes, and you're essentially sent to the bottom of the waiting list.
"If they reconstruct when they take them off, you're category one," says Melanie.
"But if you don't have cancer in your body – and I'm very grateful I don't have cancer in my body – you're not a priority any more.
"It's a priority to remove the thing that makes you feel like a woman or a mother, but it's not a priority to put you back together.
"You're constantly being pushed down the list, not only by people who have active cancer, but also those who are going through preventative surgery."
It's now been three years since Melanie mastectomy, and she still has no idea where she sits on the list.
"I haven't felt like a whole person since my surgery in 2021, and my family has now watched my mental health deteriorate while I'm languishing on this list."
In November 2022, Melanie was told to expect a wait of up to 18 months, maximum.
"This has a greater impact that just being a woman without breasts," Melanie says.
"It's retraumatising."
To protect her mental health, Melanie is now seeking to pursue the procedure privately, but says the "illusion of health insurance" means she's unable to afford the out-of-pocket costs.
"I've paid $96k in health insurance since I was 21, but the gap fee is so high – almost $20,000… I had no option but to start a Go Fund Me page."
"Not the only one."
With so many other women in the same position as her, Melanie is trying to raise awareness around the ongoing impact of breast cancer, beyond disease recovery.
"I would like more to be done to rebuild women, after the trauma of cancer and diagnosis," says Melanie.
"There is so much amazing, fantastic work that's being done with treating breast cancer, and treating women at risk of cancer.
"But once they've taken out the tumour, (the hard work) doesn't stop.
"There's social, mental, financial, and medical concerns – but you're left out there in this wilderness of nothing, and all you have to rely on are the people who have been through it themselves, who understand."
While grateful for her life-saving treatment, Melanie says experiencing cancer changes you.
"You're not the same person as you were before – physically, emotionally, mentally, and not enough is being done to support those women out there who have come out the other side.
"You shouldn't just be a priority when you have cancer."
To support Melanie's quest for breast reconstruction, visit her Go Fund Me page here.
Feature image: supplied.
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