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