Katie shares her future moment in the Gallery of Hope, a photography exhibition made in collaboration with people living with incurable secondary breast cancer.
It’s summer 2025 and it’s my wedding day. I’m with my husband by a beautiful lake sharing a quiet and happy moment together.
Katie lives in Liverpool with her fiancé Liam, her 8-year-old son Theo and their Bernese-mountain-dog-poodle-cross puppy. Katie used to work as a restaurant manager in Crosby. But after getting a recurring pain in her shoulder, which she initially considered to be nothing more than a muscle sprain, she was sent by her GP for tests and was diagnosed within two weeks as having secondary breast cancer. At this point it had already spread to her liver and bones, and then a later date also spread to her brain.
In the following years, Katie has used a range of different treatments to keep the cancer from spreading further. These enable her to go on living a relatively healthy life, so much so that in June she’ll be taking part in a sponsored 5-day trek in the Brecon Beacons. Aside from training for this upcoming hiking adventure, and looking after her family, Katie devotes most of her time to the charity she helped found. Fighting To Be Heard is dedicated to raising the profile of secondary breast cancer.
Katie's story
What research are we doing into secondary breast cancer?
Secondary breast cancer occurs when breast cancer cells spread from the first (primary) breast cancer in the breast, through the lymphatic or blood system, to other parts of the body.
Our researchers are here working to buy more time for people with secondary breast cancer.
