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LINDA Albertson had a heat rash and was rubbing cream into it when she felt a lump in her breast.
It was 2004 and she was 37, but as her family had a history of breast cancer she quickly made an appointment with her general practitioner who just as quickly made an appointment with surgeon AJ Collins.
Ms Albertson had a mammogram, a scan and a biopsy before her appointment with Dr Collins.
She took her husband Barry with her to the doctor’s and she advises anyone else in similar circumstance to do the same, as she said as a patient what you’re being told is a bit of blur.
Dr Collins gave her a choice of treatments but because of her family history she elected to have a mastectomy.
That was done in the Bega District Hospital and she had also consented to have her lymph nodes removed.
After the operation she had a full body scan and then chemotherapy at the Oncology Unit of the Bega District Hospital.
She had chemo every three weeks until she’d had six lots.
She lost her hair and wore scarves and really had a hard time of it for the last two chemos, having to move from oncology to go on a drip at the hospital.
Ms Albertson had radiotherapy next which had to be done in Canberra where she lived for six weeks with her sister-in-law, coming home at the weekend.
The people at Canberra Hospital were very obliging, giving her the last appointment on the Monday and the first on a Friday but there was one day when Brown Mountain was closed and they had to take the roundabout route up the Clyde to get to Canberra for the appointment.
The radiotherapy was nothing after the chemo.
“It was almost like a holiday,” Ms Albertson said.
She and her husband were so glad they lived where they lived when she got cancer.
They had moved to the Bega Valley from Sydney four years previously.
She said her children were very young at the time but support was tremendous from friends, family and neighbours and from their workplaces.
Her husband had to take time off work, but also her mother, her niece and her neighbours helped with the children and there were many donations of food.
Some friends also lent her a car for her time in Canberra so she didn’t have to catch the bus to appointments.
Because of her history Ms Albertson went for the genetic test and found she was in that group likely to get not only breast cancer but also ovarian cancer so, after counselling, she also had her ovaries removed.