Sally Becker – “Angel of Mostar”
(preneseno sa Mostarski Behar)
From: Nermina Harambasic
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She became known as the ‘Angel of Mostar’ after impulsively travelling to Bosnia and ferrying five children out of the war-torn town. It was an act that was honoured last summer when she was asked to carry the Olympic flag at the London Opening Ceremony.
But now Sally Becker, who helped save hundreds of lives during the Balkans conflict, must draw on all her strength because she has just been diagnosed with an ‘invisible’ form of breast cancer.
But now Sally Becker, who helped save hundreds of lives during the Balkans conflict, must draw on all her strength because she has just been diagnosed with an ‘invisible’ form of breast cancer.
Heartache of the angel of Mostar as doctors miss her breast cancer: Volunteer hero of war in Bosnia reveals she has to lose her breast after NHS failed to scan her
PUBLISHED: 22:52 GMT
She became known as the ‘Angel of Mostar’ after impulsively travelling to Bosnia and ferrying five children out of the war-torn town. It was an act that was honoured last summer when she was asked to carry the Olympic flag at the London Opening Ceremony. But now Sally Becker, who helped save hundreds of lives during the Balkans conflict, must draw on all her strength because she has just been diagnosed with an ‘invisible’ form of breast cancer. Speaking to The Mail on Sunday yesterday, she revealed how she must have a mastectomy within weeks – surgery made necessary because she was not offered a biopsy or an MRI scan after she noticed a lump 18 months ago. Sally Becker, who bravely travelled to Bosnia and helped five children escape a war-torn town, has been let down by NHS doctors She is concerned about other women in her situation – claiming the NHS has been letting women like her slip ‘under the radar’ by failing to spot their cancers early enough.
‘I feel like I’m on another mission – this time to try to help save women’s lives,’ said Sally, 52, who lives with her daughter Billie, 13, and mother Carol, 76, in Brighton, East Sussex.
Her worries started when she spotted what she described as an irregular, pea-sized lump in her right breast. The breast also seemed slightly smaller. She went straight to her GP, who referred her to the local breast cancer clinic. There, she had a mammogram – the X-ray routinely used to check for breast cancer – and an ultrasound, which can pick up different problems. Both tests came back clean and she was sent home, reassured. However, she had not been offered a biopsy or an MRI scan which can give more inner-body details. A few months later, Sally received a phone call from the London 2012 organising committee, asking if she would help carry the Olympic flag during the opening. Among the other seven flag bearers were Muhammad Ali and Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations. ‘I was amazed,’ said Sally. Yet all the time, cancer was spreading out into her breast tissue.
Sally Becker was chosen to carry the Olympic flagbearers along with Daniel Barenboim, Shami Chakrabati, Leymah Gbowee, Haile Gebrselassie, Doreen Lawrence, Ban Ki-moon, Marina Silva, and Muhammad Ali Last month, she noticed a significant change to her right breast. The skin was puckered and appeared ‘drawn in’ making it look misshapen. She decided to return to her GP, who referred her again to the breast clinic.
Sally underwent two mammograms, another ultrasound, and biopsies of her breast tissue. The consultant also sent her for an MRI scan, which can detect unusually high blood flow to parts of the breast that can be a giveaway sign of cancer.
‘I knew something was wrong,’ she recalled. ‘I said to the consultant, “It isn’t looking good, is it?”
‘He replied, “I’m afraid not.” ’
‘He replied, “I’m afraid not.” ’
Based on the biopsies and scans, Sally was diagnosed as having invasive lobular cancer (ILC) – a condition that starts in the milk-producing glands. The biopsies confirmed her fears that the original lump was cancerous. Every year, between 4,000 and 6,000 British women are diagnosed with ILC, making up ten to 15 per cent of the total breast cancer cases. Often, ILC does not form typical hard tumours early on, meaning it is difficult for mammograms and ultrasound to spot. This is particularly the case in women such as Sally, who has breast tissue that is denser than normal for her age. Breast density is one of the factors measured during a mammogram. Sally explained: ‘This cancer is like a spider’s web. On a mammogram it just looks like normal tissue.’ Sally wants women in her position – aged over 40 who have dense breasts – to be offered an MRI scan as a matter of course when they are referred for testing. Sally had a mammogram to check for breast cancer but was not offered an MRI scan which is more detailed
Of her time in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, when she rescued some 250 children, she said: ‘Crossing front lines under fire was terrifying, but I was there to help children who might otherwise not survive. Facing the possibility that I could die simply because something didn’t show up on a mammogram feels like such a waste.’ During her many mercy missions she crossed frontiers, dodged sniper fire, and negotiated with paramilitaries. She was imprisoned in a Kosovan jail for two weeks after being caught by Serbian forces, and was shot in the leg in Albania. Sally was a professional artist but felt compelled to step in and help because she could not bear to watch television footage of innocent children suffering. But while she has ‘stared death in the face’ many times, she says that breast cancer is a different matter.
‘Once, I was crossing a street in Mostar dubbed ‘sniper’s alley’ when I saw a small red pin-prick [an infra-red laser from a rifle] pass over my body. I thought “This is it.” But I made it to the other side.
‘It was terrifying, but at the same time it was very different to what I am going through now because it was just for a few moments.
‘Whereas with this, it will take years to know whether I’ve made it to the other side.’
British charity worker Sally Becker receives kisses from nephews Joby and Max after arriving from Bosnia at Heathrow airport She said that she is ‘not angry, just frustrated’ that she had not been offered an MRI scan 18 months ago. ‘If they had gone one more step and done an MRI I’m sure they would have spotted it, and minor surgery would have been the end of it. I certainly would not be facing a mastectomy and all the rest of it.’ She stressed she was not criticising the clinic where she was seen, but she thinks that women like her are getting a poor deal from the health service. She says that on the internet breast cancer chatrooms are full of messages from women saying they were initially dismissed by doctors, only to be diagnosed with ILC months or years later. Sally went on: ‘I think it’s extremely important that something is done to prevent women like myself going under the radar. Several states in America have passed dense-breast notification laws and it’s time we did the same.’ The fact the cancer was left unchecked increases the chance it may have spread. Sally is having biopsies of her lymph nodes to see if this has happened. She is understandably anxious at thought of having a mastectomy, although she is having a breast reconstruction at the same time.
‘You have to look at it like you are gaining something, rather than losing something. I’m in my 50s – they are going south, aren’t they?’
Sally was diagnosed as having invasive lobular cancer, a condition that starts in the milk producing glands But she says she is under no illusions that reconstructive breast surgery is anything like a boob-job. ‘With cosmetic surgery, you keep your own breast tissue,’ she said.
She fears, as many women do, that she would wake up from the operation and think, ‘What have they done?’ The publicity given to Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie last month when she revealed she’d had a double mastectomy has made the matter easier for Sally, especially when explaining to her daughter. Right after Sally was diagnosed she sat Billie down and told her the news straight.
‘Of course she was upset. She gave me a hug and I hugged her back.
‘She asked my mother, who lives with us, “Is Mum going to die? If she does who is going to look after me?” ’
Sally is also worried about the possible impact on Billie of seeing her mother physically affected, by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, the prognosis for breast cancer is now better than ever. It has one of the highest survival rates of all cancers. Women diagnosed in their early 50s have a 90 per cent chance of living at least five more years, according to Cancer Research UK, and many are totally cured. Consultant breast surgeon Professor Kefah Mokbel of the London Breast Clinic said ILC is hard to spot. He said: ‘This type of cancer is often invisible – you can only see the tip of the iceberg.’ Sally, who had been described by the UN and a busybody, received a handshake from Ban Ki-moon at the Olympics
Prof Mokbel explained MRI scans are not routinely offered to women who have lumps, partly for cost reasons. The scanners are expensive and access to them in NHS breast clinics is patchy. Guidelines from the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) state patients who might have breast cancer should be offered ‘triple assessment’, he said. This means a clinical examination, scans using mammography and ultrasound, and a biopsy of the lump itself. Recent guidance from the Royal College of Radiologists states that MRI scanning should be offered as a diagnosis tool to those with a family history of breast cancer. However, it does not recommend MRI solely on the basis of having unusually dense breasts. A spokesman for NHS England, said: ‘Use of MRI is a supplementary method that can be used in the diagnosis of breast cancer. It is a clinical decision when to use it based on guidelines from NICE and the Royal College of Radiologists.’ Sally believes those guidelines should be altered.
‘If something good can come out of this, it would be to bring a change and hopefully save a few lives.’ Meawhile she can reflect on the goodwill generated by her part in last summer’s Olympics. She recalled: ‘They were some of the proudest moments in my life. It was just incredible.’ As well as handing over the flag to Ali, she received a warm handshake from the UN’s Ban Ki-moon. For someone who had been criticised by the UN as a busybody who was getting in the way of the professional peacekeepers, Sally found this a huge accolade. ‘He took my hand and thanked me,’ she said ‘It meant the world to me.’
Sally Becker is a goodwill ambassador for charity Children of Peace. For further information see sallybecker.co.uk.