Dear friends I wondered whether to post this and have decided to do this as one way of getting support from friends around the world. Next Monday I am going to hospital to have a mastectomy after having been diagnosed with breast cancer. What made me want to make this public was partly due to contact I have had with a friend who was in my NMAA group years ago. She has also had a mastectomy and she said that breast cancer was one thing she believed she would never get because of her prolonged breastfeeding. While we believe that breastfeeding is protective against breast cancer (ie it reduces the incidence), this does not mean it makes us immune from getting it. We still need to take care in checking and in having routine mammograms (which is how mine was picked up). One medical friend told me that it would probably have been another 10 years or so before it would have been detectable by touch. By then it would have been a far more serious problem. I won't be reading email while I'm in hospital, but I look forward to reading Lactnet and other email again in about 10 days' time. Philippa Thomson NMAA counsellor, IBCLC and Acting Director, Lactation Resource Centre Melbourne, Australia