I Had To Tell My Boys I Had Cancer

Mother-of-two Emily Lunn opens up about why she told her children about her devastating cancer diagnosis at Christmas

Putting the first bauble on the tree is the moment when, for me, Christmas really begins. Decorating the house with my husband Greg and our sons, Billy, 11, and Jamie, nine, and seeing the joy on their faces means more than anything. Since the boys were born, I’ve always wanted to make their Christmas as magical as possible. But, of course, cancer doesn’t care what time of year it is when it decides to strike a family.

When I first noticed that one of my nipples was leaking discharge in April 2016, I wasn’t worried. I’d experienced a number of harmless lumps and cysts while I was breastfeeding, and even though my kids were way past that stage, since then I always kept an eye on my boobs. After a quick inspection, I couldn’t feel anything unusual and the leaking stopped 24 hours later. Only, by July, I could tell that the tissue in that same breast felt thicker, and harder somehow. By October 2016, when I started a course in sociology, it was still bothering me.

My GP sent me for some tests and I was later called in to hear the results. My friend Kellie came with me at the last minute (despite me telling her I was fine to go on my own) but, if I’m honest, I was sure I’d be told that there was nothing to worry about. So, when the doctor confirmed that I’d been diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer – one of the more aggressive types – I was stunned into silence.