Object of the walk
My husand Ralph and I did the Playtex Moonwalk in London in June 2005. This was a 26 mile walk starting in Hyde Park London at midnight and walking through the streets of London to raise money for breast cancer research. We raised between us about £ 1500 . Anyway while we were trudging through the streets of London we thought why don't we do something on a much smaller scale locally to us. So the seed was planted. We decided to raise the money for the AECC (Action Espanola Contra Cancer) as they arrange for ladies to have mammograms and smear tests and men for prostate cancer tests at a greatly reduced cost plus they help people if any problems do manifest which unfortunately they often do. I got in touch with our local pub the Bull Flannagan , Jackie James from the AECC, local newspapers and the local radio station TKO plus the local townhall and the walk was put into action. With all the publicity from the media including Sol Produtions as I actually went onto the local TV station to publicise the event, the 2005 walk was a resounding success rasing over 20,000€ for the AECC.

 

 

 
Debbie, ready for the walkDebbie's Profile
I moved to spain 18 years ago when to qualify for residencia you needed to have private medical insurance. When this was arranged I went for my annual mammograms and smear tests. About 6 years ago calcifications were discovered during the mammogram in my left breast. Although the doctor said there was nothing to be worried about as this was a common thing with women of my age which at the time would have been 45, 2 years later a biopsy was recommended.

I went along to a private hospital in Alicante for the biopsy which showed that I did in fact have breast cancer. I would like to point out that I never had a lump as I obviously caught the cancer before a lump manifested itself. However the cancer (which was DCIS) was grade 3 which is the highest grade you can have! Therefore the oncologist suggested I have a mastectomy to stop the cancer spreading to my right breast. Being a 36D and proud of them I was absolutely devastated at this, more so than actually having the cancer as ridiculous as this may sound. So again on the private medical I had a reconstruction actually put into motion at the time of my mastectomy operation as the surgeon and the plastic surgeon worked together. I had the expansor type where they place a deflated ball in your breast and stretch the skin over, then every week for 4 or 5 weeks I went for saline injections to increase the size of the ball. I even had a nipple Aurelia tattoed on and the teet was taken from the teet on my right breast and sewn onto the new breast. I can honestly say the finished result was fantastic and apart from obviously having a thin scar you wouldn't know it was false. I even wear low cut dresses with no problem. When they took away the remains of my original boob there was no sign of any cancer so I didn't need to have any chemo or radiotherapy.

I now lead a full and normal life and can do everything I did before the reconstruction, ie golf, aerobics, jogging and swimming.