CASE STUDY: 'I felt lucky to take part'

Ada Fagan believes the spirit of her deceased mother prompted her to ask for a mammogram during a routine visit to her GP seven years ago in Ashtown, Dublin.

"I don't know why. I just asked my own doctor out of the blue and said 'could I have a mammogram?' I was just calling in for a prescription. I wasn't feeling bad and I didn't have a lump.

"I think it was my mother's spirit looking out for me. She had passed away not long before." Ada says this is the only way she can explain the question, not least because there is no family history of cancer.

In late November 1997, one week after her mammogram, Ada was in the Mater Hospital having a biopsy with consultant surgeon Prof Tom Gorey.

This revealed micro calcification. "They explained that this was like grains of salt, cancer cells which were starting on the chest wall. I was really lucky that it was diagnosed early. I had a full mastectomy 10 days later, lymph glands, the whole lot.

"After my surgery, Prof Gorey asked me would I like to join the trial of this drug, Arimidex." Prof Gorey was the lead investigator in Ireland for a trial of Arimidex that included 42 Irish women out of a total of more than 9,000 in 23 countries. The trial concluded successfully last December.

"He explained everything about it, including that the trial would last five years. He told me it was probably at least as good as the best medicines around and possibly better."

The trial was to test if Arimidex was more effective than existing drugs in suppressing the recurrence of breast cancer in menopausal women.

"He explained that the drug worked by suppressing the oestrogen on which the cancer thrived.

"When he asked me, I wanted to take part. I felt I was lucky because I had been diagnosed so soon. I just thought positive.

"After the trial started I went to see him every three months, and then it became every six months. The follow up was very good. We'd talk about how I felt, whether I had any side effects, which I didn't. At no stage was I worried. I was very excited to be part of it.

"I didn't have to have radium or chemotherapy, I didn't have any of that. I just had to take the tablet every evening at the same time.

"From the very start from when I found out I had cancer, I had great family support and great care from Prof Gorey and his team.

"That helped because it took a few months to recover from the mastectomy. I was on pain killers too for the first while. It is an awful shock for a woman and it took a while to start getting my self-confidence back. I did though and thank God I haven't looked back since. In December [2004] they got the final good news on the trial. The cancer hasn't come back. I just have to go for an annual mammogram now and I feel great."