McGrath Foundation and Camp Quality aid Cairns mother in beating breast cancer
A Cairns woman has battled a mysterious but aggressive cancer almost losing her life. Having fought the illness, this inspiring mum has a vital message for all women. READ HER STORY
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IT was June 21, 2021 and Pamela Campusano Vallejos was planning her birthday dinner perfectly unaware of the shock that her body was about to unleash upon her.
That night, as she lay in bed, she moved her hand over her left breast but stopped when she felt something strange, something foreign, beneath her fingers.
It was a lump – rock-solid, coarse and immovable.
“I literally felt like it came overnight,” she said.
“The lump was as big as a ping-pong ball and it was sitting right at the top of my breast.
“My mother had breast cancer so I check myself regularly, but I’d never felt anything before that.”
Pamela called her work the next day and said she was dropping everything until she found out what it was.
Without an appointment, she went to her GP and told them she wasn’t leaving until she was seen.
“I knew straight up it was cancer.
“I went for an ultrasound that same day. That’s when everything went south very quickly.
“I don’t have a trained eye for radiography, but I saw the mass. The sonographer, her face just changed when the lump was on screen.”
The ultrasound detected a second lump beneath Pamela’s left armpit, only a fraction smaller. She received an immediate biopsy.
It was her 38th birthday.
Two days later the biopsy results confirmed the tumours were malignant.
“At this point I thought ‘am I going to be able to fight this or just manage cancer until I’m gone.”
Pamela had stage three triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of cancer that usually spreads before it’s detected.
It contains none of the common breast cancer receptors, which determine typical treatment.
A patient’s survival rate with stage 3 triple negative breast cancer is about 65 per cent. At stage four, it’s 12 per cent.
“It hadn’t metastasised to the other organs yet, I could fight it. I was going to fight it.”
According to Pamela, triple negative breast cancer has no sure-fire treatment, but oncologists try treatment with a combination of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation and “hope for the best”.
“Which isn’t very reassuring when you’re trying to fight for your life.”
Pamela began chemotherapy within three weeks, but she had a more difficult task ahead of her. She had to explain to five-year-old daughter, Matilda, what was happening to her body.
“She’s a very happy, bubbly little girl. She came on my birthday five years ago, best birthday present ever.
“I thought she’d look like me with my dark South American eyes and skin. When she was born with blue eyes and blonde hair, like my husband, I thought ‘you little traitor’,” said Pamela, with a long chuckle.
“But she has my personality. She speaks with her hands like a South American and is very affectionate and emotional.
“She had to endure and find out about cancer way too early in life.”
Pamela and her husband Sam didn’t know how to best communicate Pamela’s condition to Matilda.
But after some lengthy research, aided by Camp Quality, they concluded honesty was the best policy.
“You can’t lie and say ‘mummy’s fine, she just has a headache’, and not talking is the worst thing you could do.
“So we spoke with her and said ‘Matilda, you’ve seen mummy and daddy very upset lately. This is because mummy has cancer’, and then we explained what cancer was.
“We told her the body had cells, and sometimes they could go bad. We told her mummy would get very sick, but mummy could fight it with her help.”
Pamela and Sam then bent the rules of honesty, but only so Matilda could feel empowered.
“We told her that cancer hates hugs and kisses, that’s how she could help, and she took her job very seriously.
She was on top of me all the time, which was lovely. She really felt she was helping. Honestly, I think she was.”
Pamela undertook three months of weekly chemotherapy. She then switched to a more potent but debilitating form of fortnightly chemotherapy known as “the red devil”.
Five days after her first dose, her body shut down.
“I couldn’t breath or walk. I was rushed to hospital and almost went into cardiac arrest. They were able to stabilise me with blood and platelet transfusions.”
Pamela had not broached the topic of mortality with Matilda yet, but this near meet with death forced the conversation.
“She came to the ED with Sam and laid down next to me. She asked me ‘mummy, are you going to die?’
“I didn’t know, so I said ‘Matilda, I don’t know, but mummy is doing everything she can to stay with you’.”
Pamela is a strong woman, and her spirited, resolute demeanour remained unshaken until this moment of the interview.
Her polished voice falters at the memory of that conversation with Matilda, and tears roll down her cheeks.
“I’d prefer she didn’t have to learn about cancer at five-years-old, but it has made her a more resilient kid.
It’s made her stronger and super mature, and she’s still as bubbly as ever.”
Pamela’s oncologist reduced Pamela’s chemotherapy dosage by ten per cent. After two months of agonising co-operation with the red devil, Pamela rung the “chemo bell” on November 30, 2021.
Pamela elected to have a double mastectomy and 25 daily sessions of radiation to “kill any little hidden cancer cell” remaining.
On March 25 2022, she was finished with active treatment.
“I still touch my flat chest every night looking for lumps, but it’s great not having to see a doctor every day. It’s a great feeling knowing the cancer is gone.”
Pamela and her McGrath Breast Care nurse Kate Tracey, whom Pamela describes as her “best cancer friend”, want everyone, particularly young women, to be more conscious of the need for regular breast checks, as well as early intervention if anything is detected.
“I have breast cancer patients in their 20s. Breast cancer does not discriminate,” said Ms Tracey.
“One in seven women in Australia are at risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. Breast awareness is very important for women in their 20s and 30s. Know the look and feel of your breasts through regular checks.”
Pamela says society needs to clear away the taboo nature of cancer and people need to be in power over their own bodies.
“Get into the routine of checking your breast once a month, no matter your age.
“If something feels wrong, go get it checked out. Chances are it’s nothing. But what if it’s something? If you catch it early enough, you get to live.
“I wanted to fight it. I wanted to be in Matilda’s life for the rest of mine. I wanted to grow old with my husband. I wanted to live.”
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Originally published as McGrath Foundation and Camp Quality aid Cairns mother in beating breast cancer
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