SITTING in a breast screening clinic in Bunbury three years ago, Kate Tremble felt like she had been transported to another world.
A routine mammogram had come up with something many women fear – early stage breast cancer.
On the anniversary of her diagnosis the survivor spoke to the Bunbury Mail about the day her life was turned upside down.
“You lose total control of your life,” Ms Tremble said.
“I liken it to being on a bus journey and you are sitting there and you think you know where you are going, but then it just suddenly turns and goes in a different direction and you know you just have to sit there and you will get to where the [doctors] want you to go.”
But it was the six months of rigorous treatment, including a round of chemotherapy, which hit her hardest.
“I just lost my light, I didn’t have my spark any more – all I could do was sort of get through the fatigue and all my energy just went into recovering from that,” she said.
From the start she took a positive approach to her treatment.
“I just thought ‘oh well, I’m just going to have to go through all the steps that they tell me I need to go through to prevent it progressing’.”
Now in remission and back at work, Ms Tremble is using her experience to help other women facing a diagnosis – volunteering her time at local cancer support centre Dot’s Place.
“When I found Dot’s Place and started coming here I was never treated as a cancer patient, I was treated as Kate – it wasn’t the cancer they saw it was the person.”
A Breast Cancer Resource Day at the centre took in over 40 women last Thursday.
The centre holds regular events for women facing a diagnosis.
