Raise your glass to good health (From Echo)

Raise your glass to good health

10:00am Friday 7th March 2008 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

A WOMAN who has beaten breast cancer is urging people to back a new fundraising campaign for vital research into the disease.

Bev Gruber, 56, from Hadleigh, wants drinkers to support pub chain Ember Inns, which plans to donate 5p to the charity Against Breast Cancer for every glass of rose wine sold.

The company, which owns the White Hart, in Thundersley, wants to support the charity which funds research into breast cancer to increase survival after diagnosis and ultimately discover a vaccine against the disease.

Bev knows first hand the effects of the disease as she was diagnosed with the cancer in February 2002. She said: "I felt a pain in my boob. It was throbbing and my colleagues said you had better go to the doctor,' which I did.

"He sent me to Southend Hospital. The surgeon I saw only had to touch me to know it was probably cancer.

"I had a 5cm lump and it was in the lymph glands under the armpit. When cancer goes into the lymph glands that's how it can run around the body.

"It was very scary."

Fortunately the cancer had not spread and three weeks after the diagnosis Bev, a mum of three and grandmother of two, started six months of chemotherapy which caused her hair to fall out. She remembers: "I noticed things like if I was outside and I didn't have a wig on, people would cross to the other side of the road.

"Once, I was waiting for a lift and when it arrived I got in and expected the another person to follow me, but they said they would wait for another one to arrive.

"People are scared and don't know what to say."

After the chemotherapy Bev had surgery, which removed part of her breast, and then she started a month of radiotherapy.

She said: "Southend Hospital is brilliant. The cancer department and my surgeon Casper Tsokodayi were fantastic."

The cancer has not returned, but she had to take the oestrogen suppressant Tamoxifen for five years and is now on a drug called Femora, which stops the body producing oestrogen, but can cause brittle bones, hot flushes and depression.

Now Bev spends her time encouraging women to get to know their bodies so they can spot changes.

She said: "I've been through the mill and am still on medication, but I will do anything to help.

"I can't stress enough to women how important it is to know what you look like normally."

For more information on the campaign and where to find your local Ember pub visit www.againstbreastcancer. org.uk