"Like watching the cancer disappear": Tamsyn's story
When Tamsyn Watts was diagnosed with HER2 positive breast cancer on the 15th of May 2023, she never would have imagined that the next three years would see her through two surgeries 53 weeks apart, six different chemotherapy regimens, a stint in emergency with heart failure, a Christmas Eve biopsy that revealed her cancer had metastasised to her skin, and the immunotherapy that is now, finally, switching her cancer off like a light switch.
It started without a lump. There were no warning signs that fit the pictures Tamsyn had seen. What her clinicians at the Princess Alexandra Hospital found instead was something far more unusual.
"It was left breast cancer. I didn't find a lump. It was, they described it as like tree roots, so it was like veins of cancer that went everywhere on the breast," Tamsyn said. "I did AC treatment followed by Paclitaxel and Herceptin. I did nine rounds of Paclitaxel. I ended up in emergency with heart failure. So they did surgery followed by radiation that finished in January 2024."
What should have been the end of treatment, though, was only the beginning. In March 2024, Tamsyn knew something was wrong with her other breast. She pushed for an ultrasound at the PA so it could be compared against her existing scans, and even though she was told she was cancer free, the registrar's phone call a couple of weeks later confirmed her instinct. A 43 millimetre lump had been found in her right breast.
"So back to TC chemotherapy," Tamsyn said. "My two surgeries were 53 weeks apart from each other. I went downstairs to do radiation. Radiation oncologist looked at my skin and went, I don't like the look of the skin, I want a biopsy. She sent me to surgical. Surgical went, the margins are clear, she's fine, do the radiation. Went back to radiation. Radiation oncologist went, I don't like the look of the skin. I'll do the biopsy myself. She did a biopsy of my skin on Christmas Eve. 31st of December that year I was told it metastasised to my skin."
It was that radiation oncologist's insistence, and the breadth of expertise sitting around Tamsyn at the PA, that would ultimately catch what could so easily have been missed. From there, Tamsyn moved through Capecitabine, then Eribulin, then Paclitaxel with Albumin, and finally onto Paclitaxel combined with Herceptin, which is what she is on now.
For the first time in three years of treatment, she is watching her cancer disappear in real time.
"The Paclitaxel that I'm on now with the Herceptin is working. We've actually been able to watch cancer disappear, which is really freaky to say," Tamsyn said. "I had purple lumps on my skin and they've gone from deep dark purple to very, very soft in colour and they're no longer lumps. It's just like a flat spot on my skin. I take photos. So you can actually see the progression of the cancer dying on the skin."
Cancer treatment is hard on anyone and Tamsyn, who is married with three adult children, has carried more than most through this. Antonia was 17, Taj was 15 and Jacynta was 19 when she was first diagnosed, and the hardest part for her, she said, was not the chemotherapy that knocked her flat on the couch for a week at a time, but the knowledge that her family was hurting too.
"I said to one of my girlfriends, I said the struggle of I'm hurting my family, not deliberately, but like I'm the reason that my family is hurting. We were in a lot of pain from the whole prospect of doing this journey," Tamsyn said. "And my girlfriend's like, yeah, but you didn't, like, it's not your fault. And I'm like, I know it's not my fault and I didn't do anything, but I'm the one that's got the cancer, which means I'm the one that's making my family hurt type of thing."
Through every chapter of this journey, the breast care nurses at the PA have been a constant. Tamsyn singles out two of them, Emma and Juanita, who she says have been there for her in every moment, big or small.
"The breast care nurses are phenomenal. Having the ability to ring somebody to talk about, whether it's you're feeling sick and you're not sure what to do, through to you're having a rough day and you're just not sure what step to take, like being able to ring those breast care nurses is amazing and they connect with you," Tamsyn said. "I've dealt more with surgical breast care than medical, but both Emma and Juanita are just amazing. You can talk to them about anything."
The difference Tamsyn feels now, on immunotherapy rather than chemotherapy alone, is one she wants donors to understand.
"It really is life-changing. Like knowing that the Herceptin switches off HER2 breast cancer like a light switch. Like having that immunotherapy and it just, I mean I've done so many different chemos and they just, they knock you so hard. The AC treatment, I literally slept a week after treatment. I was literally non functional. TC treatment put me on the couch with phenomenal bone pain and on pain relief," Tamsyn said. "Whereas the immunotherapy just, you can still function on that one, it doesn't leave you feeling as destroyed, I suppose."
Tamsyn is now classed as metastatic stage four and will remain on immunotherapy for the rest of her life, which means a trip into the PA every three weeks. She is also nearing the end of her chemotherapy after almost three years in the chemo chairs, though she is being characteristically careful about how loudly she celebrates that milestone.
"I feel like every time I've been told you're finishing chemo, I end up back in those chairs. So I've joked with the nurses about sneaking out the back door very quietly, not celebrating the moment that I finish chemo because I feel like I'm tempting fate about ending up back in the chemo chairs. But yeah, it is exciting to finally finish chemotherapy. I know I stay on the immunotherapy, but to actually finish chemo is very exciting, especially after three years. It's a long time to have all these different chemos."
Tamsyn's story is exactly the kind that donors to the PA Research Foundation help to make possible. The targeted immunotherapy keeping her well, the breast care nurses she can ring on a rough day, and the breast cancer research projects that continue to ask why these treatments work brilliantly for one patient and not as well for the next, all of it is built on the support of incredible donors like you.
You can support breast cancer patients like Tamsyn and the breast cancer research happening at the Princess Alexandra Hospital by making the Foundation your place to give here.
