Just over a week ago, Mamamia published a story about a 29-year-old woman named Alisha.
A mum to seven kids, Alisha has stage four breast cancer.
It was 2017 when she first noticed something unusual. Her nipple looked infected. It was “oozing clear liquid” and before long it “cracked open”.
The doctor believed it was an abscess – a collection of pus normally caused by a bacterial infection – and would need to be drained. Once it was drained, however, it grew back.
She was pregnant when finally, 18 months later, she received the proper diagnosis.
It was stage three breast cancer. Aggressive. It wasn’t long before they found it in her lymph nodes and then in her liver. By that point, it had progressed to stage four.
Watch: How to check your breasts. Post continues.
While pregnant, Alisha underwent a mastectomy. Her baby boy Isaac was delivered early, so she could begin chemotherapy two weeks later.
“Everything’s kind of come undone…” Alisha told me on the phone. Five and 10 year plans were abandoned, and Alisha decided “we’re only ever left with memories”.
So she wrote a to-do list.
Take her family on their first overseas trip. Marry her partner in front of their children. Swim with big turtles. Learn another language. Take the kids horse riding. Take the kids to the Royal Easter Show for the first time. Slow dance in the sunset after a romantic dinner.