EVER since Bernie Nolan lost her battle with breast cancer and Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy, Broomfield Hospital's world-renowned breast reconstruction unit has been swamped by women wanting screenings.
The hospital in Chelmsford is one of the county's biggest breast cancer units and is one of nine national centres training plastic surgeons in different types of reconstructive surgery.
After actress and singer Bernie Nolan lost her two-year fight with cancer earlier this month, and Angelina Jolie underwent a precautionary double mastectomy last month, the hospital has seen a threefold increase in the number of women coming to it.
Simon Smith, oncoplastic consultant surgeon at Broomfield, said: "Most patients that present with symptoms won't have breast cancer, but the numbers we are seeing coming into the clinic is going up year on year.
"We saw 4,500 new patients last year, most were treated with surgery and most of that surgery involved removing a lump as opposed to the whole breast."
Ms Jolie discovered she carried the BRCA1 gene mutation that can lead to breast and ovarian cancer – the disease that killed her mother Marcheline Bertrand in 2007.
Although Ms Jolie's family history indicated that she could be at risk of contracting the genetic form of breast cancer, of the one in eight women who will contract breast cancer, only five per cent of those are due to genetics.
But that does not mean women should be complacent about their health, warns Dr Smith.
Jenny Race was diagnosed with lobular cancer in November 2010 and went on to have a mastectomy. It is one of the rarest kinds of breast cancer and it can't be found on mammogram tests, and although not the gene form of the disease, it is caused by a hormonal imbalance – namely too much oestrogen.
Jenny, 45, of Juvina Close, Witham, said: "I had a bit of sharp pain and my nipple was inverted, I got checked out by my GP and found I had a very small lump under my nipple.
"If I hadn't gone to my doctor I wouldn't have found it. By being a nurse I'm very breast-aware, but the symptoms weren't standing out to me as a problem.This type of cancer is very difficult to find.
"I have an implant every three months that blocks oestrogen. That's why I set up a support group – people are having to deal with a lot of side-effects and may feel very lonely and isolated.
"At work I'll offer my help and advice and let people know what to expect. But it's a huge thing for a woman to go through and the psychological impact is the main thing that women find hard to deal with.
"It's a huge change in lifestyle, but you've still got to run a family, bath the little one – it's massive to cope with all the things at once.
"But I'm a fighter, I have faith and great family and friends," added Ms Race, who works as a practice nurse at the Douglas Grove surgery in Witham and has adapted following her illness.
Dr Smith added: "Thirty years ago survival rates were lower and women were left with life-changing surgery on their body and often found it difficult to continue their normal lives.
"Now more women are surviving breast cancer, so we can then move from treating the cancer to treating the cosmetic side successfully. We can make them look better, which leads to patients living a full and normal life, in terms of self-esteem.
"As a doctor what we focus on is the cure because it is more important. But there's no point in making a woman look beautiful if you just make the cancer treatment worse. The key thing to this is to not interfere with effective cancer treatment."
Many women who have not only been through the trauma of cancer, but then also breast surgery and reconstruction, do survive and have plenty to be optimistic about.
Ms Race added: "It's a very odd condition, I still wanted to go to work, it's like having a chronic disease, but now it's treatable and more people are surviving it.
"The doctors and nurses are brilliant – they're so committed to making you feel better about yourself. And the surgery where I work has been great too.
"A lot of the women I see come with the feeling they are not going to live, and you have to get your head around it somehow and work out how you're going to go ahead and live and manage each day.
"I'm a totally different person now, I don't worry about the little things any more – like the A12.
"I'm more direct. I try and get my life right in most ways because life's too short, so make the most of things."
Meetings of Ms Race's support group are held at the Well Coffee Shop, Guithavon Street in Witham, which is run by the Bethel Fellowship.
The group is held on the first Monday of the month, or a Tuesday if it falls on a bank holiday, from 2.30 to 4pm.
Anyone interested in joining the group can contact Jenny on 01376 512827.
