New Year’s Eve and birthdays are times for celebration but for Samantha Foreman, these usually joyous days brought life-changing news.
“I discovered a small pea sized lump in my left breast on New Year’s Eve,” said the mother of two. “Not the start to 2019 that I expected.”
Mammograms, ultra-sounds and biopsies would confirm the lump growing at an alarming rate was Triple Negative Breast Cancer and Samantha began chemotherapy on her birthday.
“Whilst people say that is horrible, I think for me, it’s actually a gift because it means I’ll be here to celebrate more birthdays,” she said.
Following her diagnosis, the 48 year old decided to participate in the Mother’s Day Classic at Gawler, a fundraiser for the National Breast Cancer Foundation to improve detection, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
At the time, Samantha saw the event as something her close friends and family could do together for the cause.
Yet once her employer, Vasse Virgin Seppeltsfield found out about their fundraising plans, the company devised a way to show support for their much loved General Manager.
“It’s turned into something far bigger,” Samantha said.
“At the moment, I’ve raised just over $10,173 and out of that, $7,248.85 was raised by direct sales of the Rose Geranium product range from Vasse Virgin - they have donated 100 per cent of the proceeds of those sales.
“It was just such a generous act and that was undertaken without me asking them. They actually came to me and said this is what we want to do which I think, in this day and age, is really unique and special."
Whist Samantha is now on the road to recovery, she is keen to share the message of how vital early detection is and urges people to check themselves every month.
“Cancer is something that we know impacts everybody’s lives, currently one in eight women get diagnosed with breast cancer which is really high.
“Ensure that you check yourself... it only takes two minutes. And listen to your body. If you think something is not right then look for answers because we are our own best judge of what’s going on with our health.”
She also encourages fellow cancer sufferers to be open to the local support available.
“Support comes in many shapes and forms and there’s a fantastic network within our own community that we can draw upon."
