A woman was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer after she was initially told blood leaking from her nipple "was normal". Jayanne Suggett, who was 27 at the time, had been suffering from shoulder pain for a while.
Now she’s waiting for further reconstruction surgery on a “huge waiting list” but thinks things might have been different had her shoulder pain been taken seriously. She said: "Age is very much a stigma, I was dismissed and in a way I stopped fighting for myself because everyone tells you you're wrong and you think they know best.
JoAnne's sister, Leslie Wright, died in 2020 at the age of 65 after she had "cancer everywhere". In 2001, JoAnne's sister Vivienne Winger died at the age of 47 having been diagnosed with cervical cancer. For several years, her dad Jack has also been battling bowel and skin cancer but is "still fighting".
It was then, JoAnne decided to take action and do something to help, in what she called a "midlife crisis". On March 31, she had her hair cut off at the Whiston school, as her students and staff cheered her on. She told the ECHO: "When my family were diagnosed with cancer, Macmillan have always supported us and I knew I wanted to give back.
Setting a fund raising target of £500, this was surpassed and the fundraiser has so far raised over £1,100 which is the equivalent cost of one week's palliative care provided by the Macmillan cancer charity.