There is no history of breast cancer in Jeanette’s family, although other cancers have sadly affected her father and uncles. She has been diligent in having regular mammograms since turning 50 and feels she has always been in pretty good health.

Jeanette was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019, after a routine mammogram detected a small lump, which was successfully dealt with, through surgical removal and a short course of radiotherapy and medication.

Although she doesn’t dwell on her experience of breast cancer too much, it is inevitably something that comes back to her mind occasionally, and she knows that she escaped lightly, so feels very lucky. For her 60th birthday last year, she asked family and friends for some challenges to perk up her “year of being sixty”, some of which have generated charitable donations, and which have also stretched her in ways she did not anticipate – including creating this artwork!