As panic and anxiety were spreading across the country about the ever-increasing threat of Covid, Naomi Mearns’ world crashed within minutes.
Just a few hours after stepping into the breast clinic on March 20 2020, the single mum, from Stonehaven, was given the devastating news she had cancer.
She had been feeling unwell for about a year, but never thought much of it until she felt a lump in her right breast and decided to get it checked.
The doctor didn’t feel anything during the initial examination and Naomi thought she would return home to her, then, 13-year-old son Luca with nothing but good news.
However, everything changed when another doctor came in to examine her and found a tiny, almost undetectable, tumour in her left breast.
In that moment, Naomi felt “numb” as she realised she was about to embark on one of the most challenging journeys, without anyone by her side.
“Not that there is ever a good time for it, but it did happen at the worst possible time,” she said.
“The surgeon brought the Macmillan nurse in to me and they said ‘We wouldn’t normally do this Naomi, but we are locking down on Monday and we know you’ve got cancer’.
“I was just totally shocked. It was like an out-of-body experience – it felt like I was up in the corner looking down at somebody else who had just been told they had cancer.”
‘Chemo stripped away everything in my body’
Naomi was told that it was a really small tumour, which they would remove within three weeks, and that she wouldn’t need any treatment thereafter.
But when she went for an MRI scan two weeks after her diagnosis, the tumour had doubled in size.
That’s when the alarm bell started to ring that the cancer was much more sinister and aggressive than what the doctors had initially thought.
By the time of her operation, another tumour had grown.
Naomi was subsequently diagnosed with estrogen-positive cancer and HER2-positive cancer, meaning her body constantly reproduces cancer cells.
The 50-year-old solicitor was determined to “chose life” and, without thinking twice, made the decision to have her whole left breast removed.
Alongside surgery, she still had to go through six sessions of “fully blasted” chemotherapy, radiotherapy and 18 months of injections to halt the disease.
Naomi described the treatment as “the most horrific experience” she has ever had to go through as she ended up being put in hospital after every single session of chemo.
She said: “It was the chemo that killed me, more than the cancer. It just stripped away everything in my body – the things that it does to you, you can’t even imagine.
“And what made it worse was that I went through everything during lockdown. Even when I was diagnosed, I wasn’t allowed to have anybody hug me.
“I wasn’t able to have anybody with me when going to hospital for the treatments, I wasn’t allowed to have anybody visit me, or hold my hand – I was alone.”
‘Take it one step at a time’
Hearing her speak about her journey with cancer now, it’s hard to believe this confident and giggly woman has gone through such excruciating ordeal.
Naomi never let the harsh blows from the disease crush her lively spirit or erase the smile off her face, and stayed positive even in the hardest of times.
Bolstered by her colleagues at Raeburn Christie Clark & Wallace, the occasional online cocktail classes and her friends, she was determined to “live life to the full” despite all odds.
Her greatest pillar of support, was her Dachshund puppy Snoop Dog, who has relentlessly stood by her side as her “little guardian angel”.
Naomi will now take to the Friends of Anchor stage to raise awareness and add that one “nice and joyful” memory to her experience with breast cancer.
While she is still waiting for her reconstruction surgery, she wants to inspire others going through this and show that confidence can be rebuilt one step at a time.
She is now looking forward to strutting her stuff on the catwalk – which is “right up her street” – with the other Courage ladies who have become like a second family to her.
Hailing her experience with the fashion show as “absolutely incredible”, Naomi said this has helped her feel that little bit more like herself and speak up about her journey.
She said: “I want to have something nice out of this whole awful experience and show that – even without the reconstruction surgery – you can step on the catwalk with pride.
“A lot of the ladies have really struggled with confidence – just like my confidence took a knock because of what happened to me and the way I feel like my body isn’t my body.
“But I really feel like Courage on the Catwalk is a confidence builder. I’ve seen each of us get better and better every single week, and it’s just been absolutely incredible.”
Courage on the Catwalk will take place at the Beach Ballroom on May 6 and 7. Tickets for the all-women fashion show are available on the Friends of Anchor’s website.
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