Jae, United Kingdom

I was invited to the hospital to get my first prosthesis following my first mastectomy. I checked in and sat down but after 45 mins hadn’t been called so I went and asked at reception. A staff member then came and told me I hadn’t been on her list, but she could see me now on an updated one so I could come through. When we walked into the room she casually asked my breast size, when I answered 38b she spun around and said, “oh - I don’t think we’ll have anything that small!”. She then asked me to take off my top so I was in my bra, remove the foam prosthesis I had in, and then said I should come and look at the almost bare cupboard with her (to prove she didn’t have much). Eventually she grabbed a prosthesis - put it into my bra, stood back and said, “that’ll do” sending me on my way. I felt awful. Worse still, when I got home I discovered it was the wrong side (a left boob rather than a right) and a C-D cup. 

It took me a couple of weeks to be able to call my MacMillan nurse and ask what to do. I was given a new appointment with a much kinder nurse who found me a prosthesis the right size, and didn’t treat me like a lump of meat. 

I’m lucky to be a reasonably confident person, and have had a relatively simple cancer journey, but this is just one of a good handful of things that went wrong through me journey. Each one chipped away at my confidence and made it a little harder to bounce back strong. The amazing support of friends, family and my employer have enabled me to stick on a smile and front up to the next stage with gusto - ready to take on whatever life throws at me. I couldn’t have done it without them.