Pink Pets

We have made a pledge to GO PINK!

Hi we are THE PINK PETS! (Helen) Grandma Pet, Larry Pet and Aleesha Pet. We have made a pledge to GO PINK! this June by Baking Pink for one of the most amazing, courageous strong women, Kim Tanner. 

Kim has been a family friend for over 25 years. Kim is married to Mick and has 3 beautiful girls. We have put together a little snippet of Kim’s journey after being diagnosed with Breast Cancer.

In October 2019 Kim found a large sore and hard lump in her right breast. She had a mammogram and ultra sound and was told the lump didn’t meet the criteria for cancerous or suspicious lump. 

In late December 2019 she had a very minor and clumsy fall, while camping on the Murray. When she fell she heard an enormous crack and instantly thought she had broken her neck but was able to move ok although she had excruciating pain. An ultrasound showed no break so she went on with normal life with the assistance of pain and anti inflammatory meds and Physio. 

It wasn’t until the beginning of March that she started to get numbness in her left hand, finger tips and a strange sensation of a cold forearm. As a consequence an MRI located an “explosive fracture” of the C4 vertebrae. She had been “walking around” with a broken neck for 3 months. 

At the end of March she had a 9hr operation which replaced her C4 vertebrae and the discs above and below with a titanium cage held together by rods, plates and screws. A week later her neurosurgeon delivered the devastating and life changing diagnosis of Metastatic Hormone Positive Breast Cancer. Her C4 vertebrae had shattered so easily because it had been riddled with cancer which had spread from the “not suspicious” tumour in her right breast. 

She has just “celebrated” the 3 year anniversary of the diagnosis that has changed every facet of her life. 

If there’s one piece of advice Kim would like to give EVERY woman over 40 it would be to have a mammogram and/or ultrasound on your breast every 2 years. The only thing that would have saved her from her diagnosis was if she had have done this. It would have shown changes in her lumpy breasts. Otherwise, she had no obvious symptoms. 

Every donation, big or small, will get us closer to reaching our goal and helping the National Breast Cancer Foundation end deaths from breast cancer.