Lizzy’s story: Taking the plunge in support

Lizzy Sargeant, 62, and husband Mark were excited to depart on an overseas holiday to London in June last year. Just two days into their holiday, Lizzie felt a lump in her breast.

Six week later, after landing back in Sydney, Lizzy visited her doctor and had a mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy.

“They detected the lump I felt, and they also detected a second lump. The biopsy confirmed the larger lump was cancerous,” says Lizzy. The diagnosis was Stage 3 triple negative breast cancer. “When I got the news from my GP, it sort of threw me because having been pretty healthy all my life, it was a shock.”

Lizzy started chemotherapy and met her McGrath Breast Cancer Nurse Kim Wright at her first treatment.

“The first day of my chemotherapy, I met Kim. She said you’ll probably be here for four hours,” says Lizzy. “The first hour was an information session with my husband about everything that was going to happen.

“Kim is very calm and the person you can ring and cry to. Always helpful, so knowledgeable and answers so many questions.”

Kim remembers that first meeting.

“Lizzy said she felt scared about what was ahead with treatment and her cancer diagnosis. I was able to explain during our first conversation how I could support her and her family as a McGrath Breast Care Nurse and what would occur with her initial consult,” she says.

“I met with her face to face and via phone throughout treatments, providing information about each stage of her chemotherapy and immunotherapy appointments, oncology reviews then surgery and radiotherapy. I referred her to our psychosocial team, lymphoedema service and the Breast Care Nurse service where she had her surgery, so she had the resources and support to meet her physical and emotional needs.”