Eimear Coffey

When I went in, I had a mammogram and then I went down to have an ultrasound and at the ultrasound, other doctors start coming into the room and then there was a nurse kind of rubbing my hand and I was like, oh my.

but Brenda honestly I still was kind of in like still kind of in denial I don't know if it was because I probably was still in fight or flight from what had happened the year before you know but anyway then they said they were going to take a biopsy and then it was sore like it's sore getting a biopsy from your breast and

They held my hand, the nurse did.

And I was like, get me out of here.

Like, just get me out of here.

I could start to feel the panic.

And I was having panic attacks because of everything that had happened, you know.

I was really trying to work on my panic attacks and my breathing.

So anyway, I...

I was trying to leg it out the door, Vincent, and they're like, one more visit, we're just going to go down to the consultant.

I was like, what?

Why?

So I'll never forget walking into the consultants and she was looking at the screen and she said, come back next week and bring somebody with you.

And I walked out, and I remember meeting a lovely nurse, Paula, I'll always remember it, and I burst into tears, and I was kind of angry, like, I was like, what does she mean, come back next week?

What does she mean by that?

I'm fine, I'm, denial probably.

But that was the worst week of my life, Brenda, because when you don't know, you're in la-la land, not knowing what results are, like, it was just, it was another layer, do you know?

And I went back the following week with my sister and my mom.

And in the pokiest little room, that very same consultant diagnosed me with breast cancer.

And all I felt was the only way I could describe it was it was as if I'd been running from everything like the heartache, Ollie, you know, the breast.