Breast Cancer Now is a charity very close to the hearts of Pure with the team having first-hand experience of this life changing illness.
The journey of treatment for breast cancer can be an extremely gruelling one which is why, having seen what family and colleagues have gone through, we felt choosing a charity like Breast Cancer Now was the right decision. “Steered by world-class research and powered by life-changing care” are terms used by the charity and sum up well the hugely valuable mission that Breast Cancer Now have set, bringing support for today and hope for the future.
Our friend and colleague Elaine Dunn was diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2008 and below is her story:
“I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2008 when I was 34. I was diagnosed on the morning of the day I moved back from Harrogate to Inverness and as I’m sure most people feel, it came as a real shock when the consultant said the ‘C’ word and not quite the exciting start to our new chapter as we’d hoped. My sister at the same time was going through treatment for ovarian cancer so I did take comfort from the fact that I was moving back closer to family and also to good friends whom I’d known from previously living in Inverness 9 years earlier.
I received the full works of treatment at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness and couldn’t fault them, operation, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted (biological) therapy and hormone therapy, all in all 6 years of treatment. I thought that losing my hair during chemo would have really upset me but I knew that it was just another step to take to getting through it and in-fact I asked my husband to shave my head before it completely fell out which I think he found harder to do than me!
My daughter at that time was a lively 3-year-old and my husband was in the Army getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan so although it was obviously a tough time it did mean that I had to stay positive and believe that everything was going to be ok and to a certain extent keep everyday life as normal as possible. I have to say, getting the all-clear after 6 years of treatment was a massive relief.
It’s just passed my 14-year anniversary of being diagnosed and I still receive yearly check-ups due to my family history. I feel very blessed to have received the amazing treatment that I did and am super happy that Pure have chosen Breast Cancer Now as their chosen charity for 2022.”
Click here to read more about our chosen charity of the year, and who we have supported in previous years.