Screening for breast cancer caused me a year of hell The surgeon conceded that all this was true, but said that most women with LCIS felt more secure after surgery. I asked him what my breast would look like and he said: "Like half your breast has been cut off, of course." I said I wanted to get a second opinion: there was an icy silence - perhaps he had never been challenged before. He said that if I wanted to trust in "faith healers," that was fine. I found this insulting, as I have never been near a faith healer, but let it pass. I was given a pamphlet on mastectomy but there was no offer of counselling or any discussion of reconstruction. I never received a letter or anything in writing from the hospital explaining my condition. Over Christmas I decided against having the surgery and asked my GP to refer me to a London teaching hospital, where a friend of mine knew an oncologist. I did not attend until April, because the mammogram images were lost in transit. The hospital carried out another biopsy, under anaesthetic, and a week later I was told by the surgeon they thought they had found a high-risk, aggressive ductal tumour (the ducts carry milk from the lobules to the nipple). A type of surgery called a wire-guided biopsy, again under general anaesthetic, was carried out in May to establish exactly the nature of the cells. When I went back for the results, I was told that the suspicious-looking cells were not cancer after all, although things were still complicated: a further ultrasound scan after the surgery had highlighted another cluster of cells behind those that had just been removed. I was told by the consultant that they looked even more worrying: if the suspicions proved correct, I would need a mastectomy. Naturally, I found all this devastating. I had CAT and MRI scans to check if there was any spread, before another biopsy in August. When I returned for my results the same month, I was terrified. To my enormous relief, the surgeon told me that they had found LCIS again, with a "minute speck" of a slow-growing and possibly harmless cancer - not the highly invasive type they had suspected. As a precautionary measure, this was treated with radiotherapy for eight weeks. Radiation is tiring and, a year later, it still causes me breast pain. After regular checks at the hospital, I was given the all-clear last June, when a mammogram came back normal. I should make it clear that, despite all my anxiety, staff at this second hospital, in contrast to the first, treated me with sensitivity, tried to explain everything and admitted their uncertainties. I was relieved and grateful for the reprieve, but my cancer screening journey took a year out of my life; and my family and I went through hell. My daughters, Madison (then 17) and Theodora (then 15), were both at critical stages in their education. My case was clearly complicated and, to this day, I do not know what would have happened had I not gone for that mammogram - whether the small cancer they found would have ever caused problems or whether life would have continued as normal. I do know that had I not spoken out I might have lost part of my breast for no good reason; that I had to cope with acute anxiety over an aggressive cancer which did not exist; that I needed several biopsies; and am still feeling the painful effects of radiotherapy. Not long after, I asked my surgeon at the London hospital what he thought. He answered that in my case we could not go back in time but that screening helped save lives. For myself, I have learnt how important it is to be given good quality, consistent information, to be able to assess risks - and if in doubt, to get a second opinion. The different types of breast cancer LCIS (lobular cancer in situ) isn't breast cancer. In LCIS, there are changes to the cells lining the lobes (where milk is produced), which slightly increase the risk of developing breast cancer later in life. Most women with LCIS never develop cancer. It's monitored with regular breast screening. DCIS (ductal cancer in situ) is the earliest form of breast cancer and is non-invasive. In DCIS, cancer cells are in the ducts (tubes that carry milk to the nipple), but they haven't started to spread into surrounding breast tissue. If DCIS isn't treated, it may develop the ability to spread into this tissue. When it has spread outside the lining of the ducts or lobules, it becomes invasive breast cancer. There are different types, but four out of five cases are invasive ductal breast cancer - spreading from cells lining the ducts. HER2-positive breast cancer is diagnosed in women whose breast cancer cells have a large amount of a protein called HER2 on their surface. This protein can affect how some cancer cells grow. About one in seven women (15pc) with early breast cancer have HER2-positive cancer. Triple negative breast cancer does not have receptors (proteins on the surface of cells) for the hormones oestrogen or progesterone or HER2. This affects one in five women with breast cancer and is more common in younger women. Other types of breast cancer are less common.