Woman with secondary cancer raises more than £1m for charity

At the moment, secondary cancer can be treated but not cured

A woman with incurable secondary breast cancer has raised more than £1m for a research and awareness charity.

Patricia Swannell, of Westminster, central London, was diagnosed with primary breast cancer in 2007 and had a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Years later, after suffering back and hip pain, she paid for her own MRI scan and was told she had secondary cancer.

She says she is determined to use her final weeks to make other women aware.

Secondary breast cancer

Secondary (metastatic) breast cancer occurs when breast cancer cells spread from the first (primary) cancer in the breast through the lymphatic or blood system to other parts of the body.

When breast cancer spreads to the bones, for example, it is called secondary or metastatic breast cancer in the bone. The cancer cells in the bone are breast cancer cells; it is not the same as having cancer that starts there.

It is not the same as breast cancer recurrence.

Secondary breast cancer can be treated, but it cannot be cured.

Ms Swannell's fundraising - a campaign originally set up by her children - will go to the charity Breast Cancer Now.

The charity's own survey found 24% of patients who had previously been treated for breast cancer visited their GP three or more times with symptoms before being diagnosed with secondary breast cancer, and about 20% were treated for another health condition first.

Ms Swannell's says her experience was similar, in that she later realised she had been reporting the symptoms of metastatic cancer for years but had not had any conversations with medical staff about the risk or likelihood of developing it.

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