Mother says breastfeeding helped her detect cancer

A MOTHER-OF-TWO has credited breastfeeding with saving her life - as it helped detect a deadly cancer.

Nicola Reeves, 37, from Buntingford, Hertfordshire, became more conscious of changes in her breasts when she started feeding her new-born baby Eleanor, now 18 months.

She first noticed a lump in her left breast - which she thought was a blocked milk duct - when her daughter was just 11 weeks old.

Devastatingly, after visiting her doctor and a breast unit, Nicola was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

But after six exhausting rounds of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery to remove and reconstruct her breast, Mrs Reeves was finally given the all clear.

She said: "Breastfeeding Eleanor has definitely helped save my life as it enabled me to catch the cancer early.

"I was much more aware of changes in breasts as I was feeding my baby.

"I was shocked to learn that I had breast cancer - the doctors think it developed when I was pregnant."

After discovering the lump in June last year, the full-time mum was referred by her doctor to a breast unit at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridgeshire.

It was there that she received the traumatic news that she had a cancerous tumour which measured 6cm in diameter.

Mrs Reeves, who also has a three-year-old son named William, said: "Me and my husband, Martin, were devastated when I was diagnosed.

"I was utterly crushed to the point where I thought it couldn't be true.

"I was so scared of leaving Martin and the children - that was the main thought in my mind before I could even try and digest any of it."

She soon had her blonde hair cut short to help deal with the after-effects of the chemotherapy, and began focusing all of her energy on beating the cancer.

She said: "I would wake up during the night praying that it all been a horrible nightmare but it was my reality.

"But I soon realised I needed to just get on with it, I had my family to think of and they needed me.

"After my mastectomy and reconstruction, the healing process was actually better than I had expected.

"Once I finished my treatment I was cancer free.