Relief followed shock for Leonie, Miss January in breast campaign calendar

Leonie Collier, aged 43, of New Street, Upton-upon-Severn, went into instant shock when she was told she had breast cancer in November last year.

She thought she simply had a blocked duct in her breast and was horrified when she learned that she had widespread high grade ductal carcinoma.

Miss Collier, January’s calendar girl for the Worcestershire Breast Unit Campaign, said: “It was a huge shock when I was told. Hearing the word cancer must be frightening for everyone but when they said the world mastectomy I felt physically sick. It was the idea of losing a breast. You think: ‘Am I going to die?’ ”

Her operation lasted six-and-a-half hours when surgeons at Worcestershire Royal Hospital not only removed her breast but reconstructed it, using her back muscle.

Miss Collier, who says she now feels “80 per cent better”, said the experience gave her a better perspective on life and she is now doing something she has always wanted to do – ride a horse.

She even bought her own horse, called Easy, keeping him at stables in Callow End, near Worcester, and said that riding him was therapeutic in helping her recovery.

Miss Collier is now a patron of the Worcester News-backed campaign to raise £2.5 million to build a new one-stop shop breast unit at Worcestershire Royal Hospital which would cut patient waiting times in half and provide a more pleasant, less clinical environment for their care.

Miss Collier, whose 72-year-old grandmother Irene Amler died of cancer, said: “I think it will be brilliant to have a new dedicated breast unit all under one roof. It needs to be somewhere warm and welcoming, somewhere you can be seen quickly without all the chopping and changing. I once waited four hours for an ultrasound scan, getting dressed and undressed.”

Miss Collier used her skills as a film-maker with the BBC in Birmingham to create the video used to promote the campaign and offered her services free-of-charge.

She said she was supported throughout her diagnosis and treatment by staff and close members of her family. Miss Collier is now clear of breast cancer.

To get a copy of the calendar, which costs £6, e-mail calendar@everybodyknowssomebody.co.uk and you will receive an automated response telling you where you can get a copy.

• Click the picture below to download our donation form.