Blog: Breast cancer and me

Hi, my name is Catherine Pritchard, I'm a police officer seconded from Cheshire Police and my story is about the cancer I was diagnosed with five years ago. It all happened, when I felt a lump the size of a peppercorn and I brought my peppers from my kitchen to show you just how small they were, but the good thing was I went and I had it checked and within four weeks I had my first operation, then a second operation they had diagnosed me with grade three triple negative breast cancer.

So, looking back it was an arduous eight months where I had the six months of chemotherapy. I had three operations in total, a double mastectomy and then I looked up and actually it was 86 medical appointments I had in those eight months and ended up having obviously I lost my hair despite having some of the cold cap and I had nearly a year off work.

And I suppose the point of me chatting today was I think the thing that got me through was the love and support not only of family and friends, which of course was really important, but with Cheshire Police they really helped me look forward to coming back to work. They reached out to me. They let me get better while they sorted out a range of issues. You know any welfare issues and pay issues and just I had that one point of contact somebody just to say how are you how are you so I didn't have a stream of endless letters or requests that I maybe couldn't fulfil.

You know my colleague turned up one day with a bunch of flowers on my doorstep said, I'm not sure what to do but I'll try and help you as best as I can and between him and I over that time we worked out a progressive return to work and a system whereby I felt he could deal with things from work. And you know it wasn't to do with the fact of being an officer or staff or rank it was just somebody that I thought was on my side that cared for me and that when I came back to work it was progressive and it was according to my needs but also for the needs of the organisation. I understood that and I felt valued, and I felt I wanted to do work and even now six years on I feel really loyal to Cheshire Police, I want to do my best. I work hard because in this those times of emotional high alert I remember really clearly what got me through.

And I started to just think about a Cancer Talk Café because I hear, I started to chat, I'm the Cancer Lead for Cheshire and I started to chat to others, happens to have been ladies so far, and they talk about incidents where people have been well intended but careless with them that have set them back. And I really want to help educate and train colleagues and families if they need that, but also supervisors and any members of HR that haven't dealt with instances of people being off with cancer just to help and guide in any way I can about what terminology might be appropriate, signposts to other areas. I'm currently doing some volunteering for Breast Cancer Now at the weekends and I’m here for you now, phone support to some. And you know the feedback has been that it's valuable because and it gives people confidence to deal with members of staff or colleagues.

One in two of us will get cancer. So, where people are lucky enough as I've been to go back to work then let's make that a positive experience as much as we can. We're all in the police and the policing families to do a good job and mean well. So, let's educate and train ourselves and hear from other people's experience and hear how we can encourage people. Help that journey back to work part of their positive environment. It really helped me. I'm not saying everybody can be as lucky because my prognosis was good, but I feel that we can do better.

As the policing family we can do better if we're more confident about how to say what the procedure is, and people shouldn't be worried about the things at work when they're in the middle of a really really difficult health issue. I speak to some people now and I've helped, I hope, to make it a little bit, their journey a bit better. And some of them are really looking forward, in some ways, in the ways that you may not realise in coming back to work is part of the progress, part of the journey, and the signs of normality that I found valuable. And it is different for everybody, and I think that's what I picked up from my journey and speaking to others everybody deals with it differently.

So, I'm going to hold the next Cancer Talk Café on the 12th of January to help everybody I hope on what is sometimes the difficult month in January and it's cold and I remember finding in some ways it easier because I could wear a hat when I didn't have any hair after my operation and chemotherapy. But in some ways, there are long evenings, and it can be a lonely time. So, I want the 12th of January to be on Zoom so that those that are finding it very difficult can turn the camera off. They don't have to have the journey into work if they're not feeling confident enough. Just to chat. Not really to complain but also, I want it to be a positive thing so people can pick up tips, good practice for colleagues, if you've got staff, if you're a line manager, for family, for friends.

As I said one in two of us will get cancer and let's make that as positive a journey. I am fortunate and I feel fortunate. It's through brilliant medical staff, procedures, and a really positive mind, and that was helped by my journey back to work as well. I've been in the police gosh a long long time and I'm nearer the end than the beginning.