My Promise to My Daughter

Amanda Jones reflects on the tragic loss which motivates her support for Breast Cancer Now

My three children,Camilla, Dominic and Rebecca, were all close in age and they had a wonderful relationship.

Becs was the youngest. When she went to live and work in France with her long-term partner, we all did a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between the two countries.

Then, one day back in June 2002 she rang and told me that she had found a lump in her breast. It turned out to be cancer and in no time at all she was in hospital and having it removed. We were all in total shock – Becs was only 32 and she had lived a very healthy life; she didn’t drink, she exercised, she ate sensibly, she didn’t smoke.

During her chemotherapy a second primary tumour was discovered in the same breast, leading to a mastectomy and a completely new treatment regime. Becs had a hard time through that summer, but eventually she started to feel much better. During the family

New Year celebrations in France she was dancing on the table, with no hair and just absolutely loving life, bless her.

We thought this is it, she has turned the corner. But when she rang in March 2003 to tell me that her cancer had spread to her liver, and was incurable, we knew that she wasn’t going to get better. The family all went out to live with her and her partner in relays as she became increasingly unwell. We were with her when she died on the 27th of May.

We were all just utterly devastated.