When Alan Paterson’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, the whole family were distraught. Police business manager Angela, was 37 when she found two lumps in her breast, a situation she had feared would happen after her own mother died of the disease. She had a double mastectomy to make sure her other breast would not develop cancer in the future. Throughout her recovery, Alan’s mum remained a comfort and helping hand for the family. She kept the family going with home cooked meals and cleaned the house.
However, it was once Angela had made a full recovery, that Alan’s mum Christina was also struck down with the disease. Alan had taken his wife and daughter on a holiday to Lanzarote. He said “Angela had just finished treatment and she was great, as glamorous as ever. On the day we got back, mum dropped the bombshell.”
Christina did not want to ruin the family’s holiday, so she waited until they returned before she broke the news. She had two operations to remove the lump.
Now, two years on, both women are happy and healthy. They have been signed up as models in Breast Cancer Care Scotland’s fundraising fashion show in September. Alan said: “I hadn’t heard many positive stories about breast cancer until Angela got it. Now I’ve heard so many - two of them in my own family”. It just shows how women are increasingly beating the disease which affects so many people.
