Brogan’s Story

Hi everyone! We are hoping to raise some money to give a very special wife, mommy, daughter, sister and friend a well deserved treat… a holiday, a pamper or pretty much anything she wants… trust us, she deserves it!

Brogans story

As many of you will know, our beautiful Brogan was diagnosed in January 2019 at the age of 30 with stage3 grade 3 Her2 positive invasive breast cancer with confirmed lymph nodes spread.

Her cancer journey started in early December when her hubby noticed her nipple was inverted but as they were trying for a baby, she just hoped it was a good sign. Maybe not and after auntie Flo popped in and destroyed her baby dreams she took a trip to her GP to get it checked out and 2 weeks later her fears were confirmed. She spent the first few months in shock and kept thinking, surely not she was only 30, fit and healthy but it was true.

Since then she has had 6 rounds of aggressive chemotheraphy with 2 admissions for neutropenia sepsis and a anaphylaxis reaction to her last chemo (it should have been 7 rounds but with the allergic reaction it was cancelled).

Next hurdle was surgery, a left mastectomy and lymph node clearance with temporary reconstruction, which had its own complications sending her back to theatre 24hours later for evacuation of heamotoma.

Once healed from her surgery it was time to start 15 rounds of radiotherphy which gave her joyful side effects from skin burns, soreness,  huge fatigue,  chest infection and left her on a soft diet for a month due to burns to her throat (this is where she earn’t her nickname as Complication Queen).

All active treatment was finally over, next step was starting her Chemo: Herceptin and Pertuzemab infusions every 3weeks as a preventative targeted therapy but on her 11th cycle she was told her heart was failing so forced to temporarily stop and started on heart medication to help strengthen her left ventricle.

On March 8th she had DIEP reconstruction with right mastectomy which again you guessed it brought it's own complications . Because if the stress of the operation and fluids she was given, her heart started to fail, it's been eventful to say the least! With severe breathlessness and a new breast infection, recovery was slower than planned but she refused for anything to keep her down as she saw the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Finally her heart was at a stable level with her heart medication which she possibly will be on for the rest of her life but she was able to finish the rest of my preventative medication.

As a young, fit, healthy woman, working hard as an ITU nurse as well as being a wonderful wife to Gareth and mommy to Freya, this came as a devastating shock.

In true Brogan style.. she took on the challenge like a boss, with her positive pants on and kick ass attitude!

The battle has been relentless, with chemo, radiotherapy, surgery and immunotherapy … all of which came with their side effects and unwanted obstacles, however, she’s never lost focus, and even used her time away from work to co-start a baking business! (A bloody brilliant one at that!)

Covid had kept her away from returning to her beloved nursing career post treatment, but just a few weeks ago, she managed to return to where it all began, working in the gynaecology department. Finally feeling like normality would be restored at last!!

Unfortunately, after struggling with her breathing and having a couple of admissions to the emergency department, a CT scan picked up some devastating news in the form of lung metastasis. The big, ugly C had made a comeback. This news came the day before her 33rd birthday.

Although there are no definitive answers at this point, there are some treatment options, and she is going all in 100% to fight as hard as she always has!

For all of these reasons, as well as the fact that she is just an all round incredible human… we feel like she deserves something really special ❤️

Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of meeting Brogan will know what a truly inspirational person she is and we are all behind her 10000%.

Thank you for taking the time to read Brogan’s story ❤️