Kim’s Story

Hello I’m Kim and I’m 52. I was diagnosed with HER2+ BC Stage 4 de novo (liver Mets) in December 2018. Prior to diagnosis I was working as an anaesthetist. My kids were aged 10, 14, 16 at diagnosis (now 16,19,21). I have a great supportive husband, Chris.

I initially underwent chemo (taxol with Herceptin and Perjeta) and had 30 cycles of radiotherapy to breast, axilla, supraclavicular lymph nodes. Developed hypothyroidism and shoulder problems with brachial plexopathy after radiotherapy. Had an initial complete disease response with this treatment and didn’t proceed to surgery. Continued Herceptin and Perjeta until March 2022 when a PET scan picked up recurrence in lymph nodes around my liver. I entered into the Destiny 12 trial at the Olivia Newton John Cancer Centre soon after and received enhertu.  I’ve had another complete disease response with enhertu (have been on it for nearly 3 years now).

So basically I’m super- fortunate to have lived well beyond what we imagined at diagnosis. I’ve managed to see my kids grow, I’ve done lots of bucket list travel and I am pretty well 2 weeks out of 3. I see a psychologist regularly and try and exercise daily.

I had returned to work part-time after my radiotherapy but stopped when I entered the drug trial and have let my medical registration lapse.

I’ve got a good social support network, but often find that because I look so ‘well’ people (including family) forget that I’m still rocking up to chemo every 3 weeks, having a week feeling blah with nausea and fatigue, and all the aches and pains of that come with GCSF injections to try and make my poor old bone marrow make some more white cells.