By Charlene Gatt
IT’S the kind of glow that comes with a good make-over.
Caroline Springs mother of four Fiona DeConza was treated to the works at Highpoint recently to celebrate her last week of breast cancer treatment.
“It was fantastic. It was good just to be able to get up on stage and having your photo taken and just letting loose a bit and having a good time,” she said.
Ms DeConza, 40, was diagnosed in February after discovering a small lump just below her armpit.
“It was surreal at first,” she said.
“You go into a bit of disbelief, but in all honesty the process was so quick from being diagnosed to being treated, I really didn’t have the time to think about it or dwell on it.”
Before she knew it, Ms DeConza was booked in for a mastectomy, chemotherapy and then radiotherapy at the Western and Sunshine Hospitals.
She had her last course of radiotherapy last week.
“The health system’s just so quick with everything, I didn’t get any time to react. I probably struggled more with chemotherapy.
“The needles, knowing what it was doing to me, on a physical sense it was the realisation I was going to lose my hair, that I was going to suffer from nausea – which, admittedly, wasn’t too bad – but it affected my mood swings.
“I became very easily agitated, extremely moody, which was hard for everybody else around me. Radiotherapy has been the easiest one.”
With no history of cancer in her family, Ms DeConza will undergo genetic testing later this year to determine the likelihood of her daughter or nieces developing breast cancer later in life.
