Sarah Barchetti went to the doctors alone because she was convinced nothing much was wrong. She’d noticed a thickening of the skin around her breasts and thought it would be prudent to get it checked out.<\/p>\n
Within moments the mum-of-one’s life had been turned upside down.<\/p>\n
“I knew straight away, I could tell by their faces,” she said. “They knew before they’d even started testing.”<\/p>\n
Sarah, 50, of Alkrington, Middleton<\/a>, was quickly put on the cancer<\/a> pathway and booked in for a biopsy and a mammogram. The following month she was formally diagnosed with breast cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter<\/p>\n That was June 2015 and her daughter was just three-years-old.<\/p>\n “Nobody knew I’d even gone to the doctors because I just didn’t think it was anything,” she said. “Martin [Sarah’s husband] was at the park with our daughter. He had to come and get me from the hospital and then I had to go to my mum and dad’s house and tell them.<\/p>\n “You just never even think that they’re going to say it. It came completely out of the blue. It’s like a bomb blowing up.”<\/p>\n It was the start of a whirlwind few months. By July she was in treatment at The Christie, began ‘horrific’ chemo in August, followed a few weeks later by radiotherapy. Remarkably by January she was clear of cancer and able to celebrate her 40th birthday with a surprise party.<\/p>\n “It was a celebration of my birthday, but it was also a celebration that it was over, because that’s what we thought,” she said. “It was all so quick. Once you’ve been through that it’s always in your mind, but I thought it was a chapter closed.”<\/p>\n Sarah, a travel agent who grew up in Blackley<\/a>, went back to work, went on holiday and says for a while life ‘got back to normal’. But then in early 2019 she started feeling unwell again.<\/p>\n “I couldn’t put my finger on it,” she said. “We went to London for Easter<\/a> and I knew something was wrong so I went straight back to the doctors when I got back.”<\/p>\n Scans confirmed the devastating news that Sarah had incurable secondary breast cancer, with the disease having spread to other parts of her body. She was put on an intensive course of chemo and told to prepare for the worst. Remarkably seven years later she’s still here.<\/p>\n “In one way I’m very, very lucky to have lived with secondary cancer for seven years,” she said. “When you get diagnosed with secondary breast cancer they say two to three years, so I’ve outdone what they’ve said. But on the other hand, you’re not lucky because it’s not long enough.”<\/p>\n Over the last 11 years Sarah has undergone eight rounds of chemo, numerous surgeries and biopsies, radiotherapy and various other courses of drugs. At times it’s been almost unbearably gruelling. But throughout it all her daughter, now 14, has remained her focus.<\/p>\n “It’s been a real struggle, but my mind is strong and I think it keeps my body strong,” she said. “I was really lucky because people take [the chemo] for maybe six months and they can’t tolerate anymore. I’ve had to tolerate it because I’ve known that there’s nothing else there.<\/p>\n “My daughter has been my strength. Every single day, when I’ve not felt like I can do it any more, I’ve done it for her, and I’ll always continue to do everything for her. She needs me.<\/p>\n “I wanted to be there for her and be her mum. People say you’re brave and strong, but I don’t want to be brave and strong, I’m just dealing with what has happened. The other option is not an option, is it?”<\/p>\n Now, however, Sarah’s story has taken a rapid and unexpected turn. Doctors have said the chemo is no longer working and all other treatment options available on the NHS<\/a> have been exhausted.<\/p>\n But there is a drug on the market that has shown promising results for patients with the same type of cancer. It could buy her a few more months and stabilise her condition to the point where she’s able to go back on the trial list for when new drugs become available.<\/p>\n However Sarah doesn’t meet the NHS eligibility criteria for it. She is, she says, the victim of a treatment lottery.<\/p>\n “I truly believe that we shouldn’t be sat in this country fighting for drugs that are available,” she said. “For whatever reason, they won’t give them to me.<\/p>\n “I just think it’s wrong on every level. It’s like your life’s almost not worth it, because it’s money, that’s what it’s come down to.”<\/p>\n It means Sarah and Martin, a firefighter in Heywood<\/a>, have launched a fundraiser to try drum up the staggering \u00a3200,000 needed to pay for the treatment privately<\/a>. It’s not been an easy decision for the normally private family, but Sarah says she’s been blown away by the response.<\/p>\n “It’s not been a secret,” Sarah said referring to her diagnosis. “People that are close to us, friends and family know, but I’ve never chosen to publicise it.<\/p>\n “It’s mainly to try live as normal life as possible, but also to protect my daughter because she was so young [when Sarah was first diagnosed] and she’s lived with it for such a long time. I didn’t want to almost steal her childhood away from her.<\/p>\n “But [the response to the fundraiser] has been fantastic. Old school friends have been in touch, people that I don’t even know, the whole community. It just restores your faith in people. You realise how good a lot of people are.”<\/p>\n Within four days of its launch last weekend a remarkable \u00a340,000 was raised. And it’s meant Sarah is able to dream that after more than a decade life could perhaps one day return to normal.<\/p>\n “It is a dream, but all I really want to do is get better, go back to work, have the usual struggles,” she said. “I just want to be Sarah. I don’t want to be Sarah with breast cancer. I just want to be me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sarah Barchetti went to the doctors alone because she was convinced nothing much was wrong. 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