My cancer is incurable - is more time too much to ask?

Leah Hardy talks to Nina Lopes about her battle to access a breast cancer drug denied to some NHS patients in England

- Leah Hardy

Nina Lopes, 42, dreams about taking her 13-year-old daughter Ilani on holiday to Japan. It’s something they often talk about when they snuggle up together, but right now, even seeing Ilani celebrate her next birthday is something Nina can simply live in hope for. Because Nina, who lives in south London, is seriously ill with incurable breast cancer.

Nina was first diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in July 2018, when Ilani was only six. “I was 36 and working as a head of design at a fashion company. I felt like I was in freefall, afraid my daughter would grow up without a mum.”

Nina had chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy and by April 2019, she hoped she was cured. However, two years later, Nina developed fatigue and pain in her bones. Doctors initially dismissed her symptoms as depression or side effects from her treatment, but after Nina begged her doctors for a scan, they finally relented in July 2021.

“The scan showed that my cancer had spread to the chest wall, sternum and lymph nodes in my chest”, she says. “My cancer was now metastatic, meaning it was inoperable and incurable, and I had as little as three months to live. At first, I thought I couldn’t go through treatment again, but when the chemo started to work, the pain lifted and I felt better, everything shifted mentally. I was determined to live.”

Since then, Nina has fought relentlessly for more time. She has suffered debilitating chemotherapy and sought out clinical trials offering experimental and potentially revolutionary drug combinations. However, each time the medication has either not worked, has had life-threatening side effects or stopped working as her cancer mutated.