A MOTHER who is battling secondary breast cancer has been picked to take part in a glittering fashion show in London later this year.
Emma Cairns, 44, who lives in Holmewood Close with her 11-year-old daughter Molly, was picked from hundreds of applicants to take part in the annual Breast Cancer Care Fashion Show this November.
Emma, who has campaigned tirelessly for more funding into research of secondary breast cancer, will join 31 other women on the catwalk at the Park Plaza in Westminster on November 2.
The former Emmbrook and Forest School teacher said: “It’s one of their biggest fundraisers for the year, I think in the evening the presenters will be Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford.
“We haven’t been told which brands we will be wearing but I’m looking forward to finding out at the fitting in a couple of weeks.
“I’ve never done anything like it before and I’m absolutely terrified because it is two shows, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, and about 800 people will attend each show so it’s a massive thing.
“I thought it was really important to do it, a lot of women with secondary breast cancer aren’t well enough to do something like this, or to make their voices heard or stand up and shout for their rights, so it has given me the opportunity to stand up and speak for those people as well as raising awareness of it locally and nationally.”
Emma was originally diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006 after finding a lump, but following treatment she was given the all-clear. Sadly, in 2011 she began to suffer from back pain and while attending a routine check-up at the hospital a scan revealed that the cancer had returned and spread to her spine and, more recently, her liver.
Emma said: “My daughter has just started secondary school, and when I was diagnosed in 2011 I was told two to three years would be my life expectancy, so five years later I’ve seen her go to secondary school which I never thought I would be able to do. We have done a lot of travelling, I wanted her to get to see as much of the world with me as possible, so we’ve been off to Cambodia, Borneo and all sorts of amazing places, so I’m really trying to spend my time making memories with her that she will have in the years to come.
“[Molly] is definitely older than her years, I’ve been very honest with her about my disease as I don’t want her to get a big shock at any point. I’ve had a long period where my disease has been stable, but unfortunately I’m just coming into a period where I am going to need some new treatment because the condition has decided to wake up so she knows it’s going on. Its unsettling for her and of course she asks those awful questions, but I have to be honest with her.
“The good thing about the type of breast cancer I have is that it is the most treatable, they say it is ‘the best one to have’ out of all of them, and new treatments are coming on the market all the time, so you just need to hope that they can keep you going for as long as possible really.”
Emma is now trialling a new style of biological therapy, but has had to postpone her treatment while she recovers from mouth ulcers.
She said: “I would like to avoid chemo at all costs, I’ve had it twice already and it’s not pleasant and it would have much more of an impact on my daughter’s life so the longer we can stay away from that the better really.
“I’ve got amazing friends and family who are always saying ‘how can I help?’ which is brilliant, I’m very lucky to have such a strong support network in Wokingham.
Having retired from teaching due to ill health, Emma has taken her fight for awareness of secondary breast cancer to Westminster, where she talked to MPs at the Houses of Parliament as well as the Labour Party Conference where she spoke personally with newly-elected leader Jeremy Corbyn, who raised her question on the statutory reporting of secondary breast cancer by hospitals during Prime Minister’s Questions.
Emma said: “Hospitals are meant to report how many women are diagnosed with secondary breast cancer each year, but it’s just not being done so there are no actual figures or data for how many people are diagnosed, how they are treated or the success of those treatments. That makes it very difficult for hospitals to respond to care, and for the Cancer Drugs Fund where they are making decisions about funding for drugs based on data, but where are they getting the data from?
“Jeremy Corbyn asked the Prime Minister, who at the time was David Cameron, why wasn’t it [the collecting of data] being done, and David Cameron said he would look into it.
“This year Breast Cancer Care have done a lot more about this and have carried out a Freedom of Information request from hospitals to find out who is collecting and how they are collecting, that’s one of their main focuses at the moment. It’s a massive step forward.”
To find out more about Emma’s campaign and make a donation to Breast Cancer Care visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Dontbeasheep. To find out more about the charity visit www.breastcancercare.org.uk.
