In December 2021, I was diagnosed with invasive lobular breast cancer. (ILC). I had never heard of it; I thought all breast cancers were the same.

10-15% of breast cancers are lobular; it is the second most common type. However, lobular behaves very differently to other types of breast cancer and outcomes tend to be poorer. In its early stages, it does not form lumps, but spreads through the breast tissue like a spider’s web. So it is difficult to feel and can be missed on mammograms.

Therefore, people who have lobular breast cancer are often diagnosed at a later stage. As I was. By the time I felt my cancer, I was Stage 3 – it had spread to quite a lot of the lymph nodes in my armpit and was therefore more likely to have spread to other parts of my body. No evidence was found of this, but I had to have aggressive treatment – surgeries, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and I am now on hormone therapy (for 10 years) and a targeted therapy (for 2 years) to try to stop it coming back or spreading.

There is no specific treatment for lobular breast cancer. It is treated the same as the more common ductal, even though they behave in different ways.

Researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London believe with more funding specifically for lobular breast cancer research, they could fully understand the biology of ILC. This is the vital next step to getting the specific treatment needed to improve outcomes.

Dr. Susan Michaelis launched the 'Lobular Moon Shot Project' in May 2023. The project seeks to raise £20,000,000 for a 5 year research project into ILC by ICR.

On Saturday April 13th, I plan to walk 22 km along the Grand Union Canal, from Napton Junction, where it joins the Oxford Canal, to Warwick Hospital. This is for the 22 women a day in the UK (1000 women a day worldwide) who are diagnosed with lobular.

Thank you for supporting me to raise finds to try to find specific treatments for my cancer.

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