Signs from Helena DR CAT'S CANCER EPIPHANY

The cosmetics medicine doctor gets a lifesaving message from her beloved late pal

- MARILYNN MCLACHLAN

For most people, seeing the odd speck of glitter showing up in random places wouldn’t mean much, but for Dr Catherine Stone, they are a message from beyond the grave.

The Aucklander, who is affectionately known as Dr Cat, started noticing the sparkling flecks more and more often at the end of last year, and believes that her dear friend Helena McAlpine – who passed away after a courageous battle with breast cancer in September 2015, aged just 37 – was trying to get her attention.

Dr Cat, who was super-close to the media personality, explains that at Helena’s funeral “we had an arts and crafts corner where there were bags of glitter. I’m highly caffeine-sensitive and someone gave me two or three espresso martinis and all of a sudden I decided that Helena would have wanted everyone to be covered with glitter!

“And so I know when she’s around and sending me a message because people will start turning up with little bits of glitter on their faces.”

In a cruel twist of fate, it’s now Dr Cat who is battling breast cancer. While the cosmetics medicine doctor found a lump in her left breast two-and-a-half years ago, tests confirmed that it was hypertrophy, or overgrowth, and didn’t require treatment.

But late last year she noticed the growth – which had become harder and more lumpy, and wasn’t changing throughout her menstrual cycle – and felt Helena was telling her to get it checked.

On January 28, she had a mammogram and ultrasound, needing both because she has dense breasts as well as implants.

“My radiologist came in and when he started doing the ultrasound, I saw his face change,” the 45-year-old recalls. “He switched to the Doppler, which measures blood flow, and as soon as I saw it, I let out a sob – I knew it was cancer.”