An Elgin hairdresser has overcome cancer after losing her mother to the disease only years prior.
Amy Addison, 43, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023.
This was only a year after her mother Rosemary Stewart sadly passed away after a battle with womb cancer.
Owner of Hub Hairdressing salon in Elgin, Amy is now in remission and has taken part in a Cancer Research UK video promoting Race for Life.
The ex-Elgin Academy pupil stars amongst celebrities and scientists, including The Traitors winner Leanne Quigley, who share their chosen songs in a new video launching the Race for Life playlist.
Her chosen song is What’s Up? by Four Non Blondes as it “brings her and her girls together”.
She added: “It’s a 1990s song that takes me back to the days when we were school friends together at Elgin Academy.
“It makes me think of the friends who have stuck with me through my life and who supported me through some tough moments in my cancer journey.”
The 43-year-old is now preparing to join her husband Stuart Addison, 49, children Kyla, 17, and Menzie, 15, as well as friends and family at Race for Life Inverness at Bught Park on June 1.
Amy’s breast cancer diagnosis
Amy’s mum Rosemary Stewart passed away aged 74 on May 25, 2022 from womb cancer.
Rosemary was a former school receptionist at Greenwards Primary school, and Amy described her mother as “bright, sparkly and would have done anything for you”.
Amy added: “Chemotherapy treatment gave her more time but she had 11 months after being diagnosed with cancer. We all miss her so much.”
Only a year later, Amy was diagnosed with cancer herself.
She was packing to go on a family holiday to America in the summer of 2023 when she first noticed a lump in her left breast.
On October 5, 2023, Amy was eventually diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, an early breast cancer.
This meant some cells in the lining of the ducts of the breast tissue started to turn into cancer cells. These cells were all contained inside the ducts and hadn’t started to spread into the surrounding breast tissue.
Amy told children about cancer diagnosis ‘as soon as she got home’
“The drive home knowing we had to tell our children was hard,” she said.
“We didn’t get back until about 9.30pm so I think they knew something was up.
“I told them as soon as we got home. I was worried that the only word they’d hear was ‘cancer’ so I drew diagrams and explained everything.”
However, Amy said she let them know from the beginning that “although the news was upsetting”, there was going to be a good outcome.
On January 6 2024, at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Amy had a 16 hour surgery which included a mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction.
It was estimated that Amy would be in hospital for five days but complications meant she was there for five weeks. In total, Amy had six operations.
‘Amazing’ staff provided ‘above and beyond’ care to Elgin mum
Amy said: “I felt I’d moved in to that hospital at one point as I was there for so long.
“But every single person working on that ward was amazing.”
She praised the “above and beyond” care across the ward from the surgeons and nurses to the tea lady and cleaners.
After being discharged from hospital, no chemotherapy or radiotherapy treatment was needed.
In June last year, Amy and her team known as Amy’s Army raised more than £6,000 at Race for Life Aberdeen.
“As we crossed the start line at Race for Life, part of a track from the movie the Greatest Showman played,” she said.
“That was the last movie I’d ever watched with my mum before she died.
“I felt my mum was with us that day.”
Conversation