A TEENAGER facing an agonising wait to discover whether she has breast cancer is backing a £2.5 million appeal to build a dedicated centre for sufferers of the disease in Worcester.
Actress Anna-Julia Grinnell, just 17, is waiting for test results after discovering a lump in her breast. But she is putting her personal trauma to one side to support the Worcester News-backed Worcestershire Breast Unit Campaign. The campaign aims to raise £2.5 million to open a dedicated breast cancer unit on the Worcestershire Royal Hospital site. The unit will consist of a examination rooms, consulting rooms, mammography rooms, a radiological reporting area, theatres for ultrasound and minor or local anaesthetic procedures, counselling rooms for reflection and discussion, a prosthesis fitting room, and a garden for patients and visitors.
Anna-Julia said: “The appeal is fantastic and inspirational. It would be a godsend to have a unit here in Worcester. It’ll make a difference to so many people.”
The teenager, of Winfield Road, Claines, has already had one lump removed and is now anxiously waiting to have an ultrasound scan to determine if a lump in her breast is cancerous.
“It’s the waiting that’s awful,” said Anna-Julia, who will make her professional stage debut at the Swan Theatre, Worcester, playing the cat and Fairy Beaubells in this year’s Dick Whittington pantomime.
“Nobody thinks, at 16 years old, that they are going to find a lump. It’s been a wake-up call, a reminder of just how important it is for young people to check themselves. I didn’t think this time last year that I would be having an operation. It’s come as a complete shock. Yes, it’s been upsetting and it’s hard. I’ve done my crying and getting myself worked up. I’ve had anxiety attacks and I’ve not been able to eat or sleep.
“But it could be worse so I try to put it to the back of my mind and make the most of every day.”
Anna-Julia, a former Bishop Perowne CE College pupil, found the first lump by chance. She went straight to her GP who referred her to a consultant in Kidderminster.
After a needle biopsy and ultrasound scan it was decided that the best route was to remove the lump entirely. She underwent surgery last month but a few weeks ago discovered a second lump. But while awaiting her results Anna-Julia says she will live every day to the full.
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