Brave Mum's Cancer Plea Don't Ignore A Lump

Tanias Spirit Wont Be Broken By Her Diagnosis

- Steve Landells

Looking at Tania Lelisi, it’s hard to imagine that the outgoing West Aucklander is living with a death sentence hanging over her. Yet the mum-of-two is a ticking time bomb after being diagnosed with terminal metastatic breast cancer in early 2016.

Facing every day with a “terrifying fear of the cancer spreading” is tough, but thanks to Tania’s positive attitude and fantastic support network, the 53-year-old is not only surviving but thriving. Each new day is a blessing to be cherished.

It was three years ago when the human resources manager first noticed a prominent lump on her breast, but she put it out of her mind.

“Life was busy,” Tania explains of why she initially chose to ignore the lump despite her mother also developing breast cancer more than 25 years earlier. “I was working full-time and I had two daughters – I don’t really know what I was thinking.”

However, when Breast Screen Waitemata chased Tania up for an overdue mammogram in October 2015, she was devastated to be diagnosed with cancer in both breasts and told she urgently needed a bilateral mastectomy.

“I remember bursting into tears in absolute disbelief,” she recalls of the moment she was given the chilling news.

Undergoing surgery and making the decision to have implants, Tania returned to hospital multiple times after developing an infection.

She underwent a skin graft on her breastbone to seal the wound in preparation for a course of chemotherapy, before a surgeon sent her for an MRI scan as a precaution.

“We didn’t expect anything to come from it, but during my pre-chemo appointment, I was told that the cancer had become metastatic [spread to other areas of the body],” she says. “It was a huge shock.”