Titivate - My Breast Cancer Blog

03/11/2025

Love, love, LOVE this.. help us spread the word and share, share, share please 🙏

Be brave, be bold, be beautiful! 💖

Whereas most post-surgery underwear is created with the aim of hiding the loss of your breast, Uno is about embracing asymmetry and falling in love with your body again. It is also about support, healing and feeling wonderful. No more adjusting prosthetics and hiding in baggy t-shirts.

12/10/2025

Can you help? ✨

For those who have been diagnosed with breast cancer or similar the information overload in the beginning is immense plus the absolute devastation of the actual diagnosis too!

I’m a strong believer that keeping your mind focused and positive always helps, so if you can help with the below please either send me a private note with your story or if happy to share publicly please add in the comments below.

Much love to all my fellow breast cancer warriors 💖

08/10/2025

It’s that time already for my next Denosumab injection.. it proper wiped me out last month for about 7 days so am going to try and not be as crazy busy over the next few days to see if can beat the tiredness..
I always find turning things into a bit of a game helps 🤣🤦‍♀️ but the main thing I’ve learnt is to be kind to myself and allow myself time to rest… time is the biggest gift we can give ourselves.

Always grateful to be able to attend the Christie’s outreach centres too which saves me massively on time as I can just nip to St Ann’s (Moyà Cole) Hospice instead of having to travel all the way to the main Christie’s site.

Much love to you all, especially my fellow breast cancer warriors 💖💪

02/10/2025

It’s the 2nd of the month so that’s when there are campaigns to highlight secondary breast cancer and I never thought I would ever been in that category!

Do you know what secondary breast cancer is?

Basically it is when the original cancer has spread to other parts of your body, so for me my breast cancer was found in my ovaries (thankfully once they’d been removed), in my right upper lung - now just a small nodule and three small spots in my spine - which haven’t changed in shape or size since first notes on my scan.

Once the cancer had spread that upgraded my status to Stage 4 - however this is nothing like what it used to mean. LOTS of women are living long lives with stage 4 breast cancer and some are still on their first line of treatment too.

There is very little support or funding for us and we are often left to fend for ourselves at this stage; but there so some fantastic charities like Make 2nds Count who are raising awareness and educating people on it too.

Also when I saw my secondary breast cancer nurse on Weds at the Christie’s Outreach within Bolton Hospital I was thrilled to hear that the very newly formed small team of just two women have managed to help nearly 300 women living with stage 4 breast cancer - this is fantastic and a massive step in the right direction to help me and all the other women live with this dreadful disease!

Here I am in all my glory - be bold, be brave, be beautiful! 💖🙌

Keep fighting my fellow warriors. 💪 …the rest of you keep checking those b***s, chests and armpits - if you’ve got a concern get on the phone and make the appointment! 💖

01/10/2025

This first picture was April 2023 and my first ever chemo, I had been diagnosed with primary breast cancer in the February and had my first mastectomy in the March prior to starting chemo.

The second picture was today, two years on back in the same chair but thankfully just for bloods and my monthly check over so the docs can release my medication.

What struck me most when I looked at these two pictures together was that unless you actually knew my whole cancer journey you would never realise from these pictures what I have been through.

This girl has been to hell and back, circled round it and right through the middle of it too and is still fighting every day and living with stage 4 breast cancer.

The point of this is to all my fellow breast cancer warriors… you CAN and you WILL do it! Not every day, some days you won’t even make it out your pjs or the front door. Some days you’ll hate the world and what it’s given you but you will continuously brush yourself off and get back up, time and time again. You will find a strength you didn’t even know you had and you will tackle everything thrown at you.

If you’re currently in the throes of chemo, loosing your hair and feeling like absolute s**t, if you’re midway through radiotherapy, just had surgery or even if you’ve just been diagnosed - please take some strength from these pictures and know that YOU will get there.

Keep fighting my fellow warriors. 💖💪

28/09/2025

Two years since my second bell ringing at the end of my radiotherapy!! Though I’ll never get the ‘all clear’ I craved, life has settled into a new normal living with Stage 4 Breast Cancer and is finally manageable mentally, even more so with my stable scan results too! 🙏💖

11/09/2025

Well it’s been a heavy couple of weeks for appointments. Today saw me off to J Block at Bolton Hospital for a CT Angiogram following on from the problems I had when I attempted the 3-peak challenge.

One of the main issues alongside the breathlessness is that my oxygen levels keep fluctuating which has been a great cause for concern.

Incase there were any immediate issues the scan images were sent to SDEC (Same Day Emergency Care) so that it could be checked and any treatment required would be started straight away.

I am soooooooo happy to report that there is no evidence of any form of clot and my oxygen levels have stabilised at 99/100%!!

There is scarring on the right side of the lung, most likely from the radiotherapy and this is most likely to be the cause of the breathlessness.. however this is nothing sinister or life threatening and I can do lots of things to help them work properly.

Sooo I’ll be having some lung capacity tests but also my sister has put me in touch with her colleague who specialises in breathing patterns and she will be able to advise me further on exercises I can do to increase capacity and manage my breathing!

So that’s all totally great news and I am really REALLY relieved that it’s nothing sinister at all and that I’ll be able to help my lungs recover as I have done with the rest of my body. 💖🙏

10/09/2025

Sooo today I started a new medication - Denosumab! I’ve held off starting this over the Summer holidays as one of the main side effects can be tiredness and fatigue but now little miss is in school it’s time (and I’ve ran out of excuses😜)

This is an injection I’ll have every 4 weeks into my stomach, given by the amazing nurses at St Ann’s. It is a treatment for secondary bone cancer (cancer that has spread to the bones). It helps to strengthen the bones and prevent fractures - and this is one of the reasons I’ve been happy to accept this medication.

Denosumab works by targeting a protein called RANKL which controls the activity of osteoclasts. This stops bone cells being broken down and strengthens the bone.

After having my ovaries removed that stopped my oestrogen production and threw me straight into menopause. With the lack of oestrogen in my body which is to keep my body cancer free (my cancer is fuelled by oestrogen), the knock on effect is a higher risk of osteoporosis and bone weakness - this medication is to help keep that at bay and it will help keep the cancer spots in my bones behaving and stable.

So let’s hope my body accepts this new medication with minimal side effects 🙏💖

03/09/2025

My amazing friend and fellow Stage 4 Breast Cancer warrior Lisa is taking part in a mammoth 40 mile cycle this Sunday as part of the Tour de 4 challenge and raising much needed funds for Make 2nds Count - the fabulous charity that supports women living with secondary breast cancer.

Pleeeease if you can give anything at all it will help! Let’s try get her over the target before she sets off pedalling! 💖💪🚴‍♀️

Click here to donate: https://gofund.me/1909d487

11/08/2025

It’s that time again folks.. CT Scan Day… it’s been a whole three months since my last one and to be honest I am trying to live as if cancer has never existed in me and that I’m not battling to keep it under control..

However, the appointments are still coming and I am grateful that I get this scan.. it’s the contrast one so I’m given a dye that will work with the CT machine and highlight any areas of concern and discussion. I’ve got a couple of weeks wait now for the results and let’s hope once again that it’s stable 🤞🤞

My advice as always is.. live your life every single day, fill it full of joy and happiness, tell those you love how much you love them every single day and just be HAPPY! Life is so fragile and can change or be gone in an instant so grab it with both hands and LIVE it!

Keep everything crossed folks that I’ll be a stable mable 👊💖💪

06/07/2025

Last year I wore my Unobra at the finish, this year I’ve no b***s and no ovaries but have gained an extra roll of fat ha! I’m still here fighting this dreadful disease and I’ll forever wave the flag, raise awareness and fundraise… doing this race for life today with my beautiful Rosie by my side has been absolutely amazing and I will fight, fight and fight some more so that I’ll still be doing this race with her when she’s having to help me round!
To all my fellow cancer warriors - keep on fighting and keep on, keeping on 💖💪