I opted for surgery straight away, and luckily, I came away with clear margins. However, because of the type of cancer, Stage 1A, I have chemo and Herceptin hormone therapy every three weeks.
My initial treatment was at the Collingwood Centre in Colchester Hospital and then I was offered the opportunity of continuing my treatment on the mobile cancer care unit which parks at the Co-op just five minutes away from where I live. I honestly cannot fault The Collingwood, but unfortunately, it is always so busy. On a good day, without traffic, the journey should take around 12 minutes, but I’ve known it to take 45 minutes, and then I have had to queue for the car park for another 25 minutes. My husband and daughter used to take it in turns to drive me as I couldn’t drive myself, so that had an impact on their time too.
I never saw the same person at the hospital, as I was always in a different part of the ward, so there was never a chance to get to know anyone. However, I see the same faces on the mobile unit. It’s very friendly, even if I see people from there out and about in town, we will stop and have a chat. We’ve become friends. It’s a real little community.
As it is, I am in and out in half an hour and now that I have gone back to work, it makes life so much easier.
The mobile unit is heaven-sent, really. I see it as a bit of a lifeline that gets rid of all the stress, and I like the idea that it is taking the pressure off for people who don’t have a choice but to go to the hospital. That’s a really positive thing.
Before I started using the mobile unit, I used to see it parked up but never really paid it much attention. Now I am happy to tell anyone I meet what goes on in there. It provides such a fantastic service.
I cannot sing the praises of the mobile unit enough. I will say to anyone if they have that opportunity, it is such a lovely experience compared to a hospital environment.
Everything happened so fast with me; it was overwhelming, but there’s no other way of doing it. My oncologist says it’s like running around with a bulls-eye target on your back, but luckily, the medical profession has a good supply of bullets to shoot at it.
I opted for surgery straight away, and luckily, I came away with clear margins. However, because of the type of cancer, Stage 1A, I have chemo and Herceptin hormone therapy every three weeks.
My initial treatment was at the Collingwood Centre in Colchester Hospital and then I was offered the opportunity of continuing my treatment on the mobile cancer care unit which parks at the Co-op just five minutes away from where I live. I honestly cannot fault The Collingwood, but unfortunately, it is always so busy. On a good day, without traffic, the journey should take around 12 minutes, but I’ve known it to take 45 minutes, and then I have had to queue for the car park for another 25 minutes. My husband and daughter used to take it in turns to drive me as I couldn’t drive myself, so that had an impact on their time too.
I never saw the same person at the hospital, as I was always in a different part of the ward, so there was never a chance to get to know anyone. However, I see the same faces on the mobile unit. It’s very friendly, even if I see people from there out and about in town, we will stop and have a chat. We’ve become friends. It’s a real little community.
As it is, I am in and out in half an hour and now that I have gone back to work, it makes life so much easier.
The mobile unit is heaven-sent, really. I see it as a bit of a lifeline that gets rid of all the stress, and I like the idea that it is taking the pressure off for people who don’t have a choice but to go to the hospital. That’s a really positive thing.
Before I started using the mobile unit, I used to see it parked up but never really paid it much attention. Now I am happy to tell anyone I meet what goes on in there. It provides such a fantastic service.
I cannot sing the praises of the mobile unit enough. I will say to anyone if they have that opportunity, it is such a lovely experience compared to a hospital environment.
Everything happened so fast with me; it was overwhelming, but there’s no other way of doing it. My oncologist says it’s like running around with a bulls-eye target on your back, but luckily, the medical profession has a good supply of bullets to shoot at it.
