Fiona Macrae, a travel insurance broker living in London with her husband Elliot Lane, was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2005, with her five-month-old son Cameron beside her in his pram. Now, after a secondary diagnosis in 2020, she has been told her cancer is incurable.
Macrae first noticed changes in her left breast in 2004 while pregnant with Cameron. After his birth, the changes persisted, but doctors initially said it was likely due to milk production. A GP later referred her to St Bartholomew’s Hospital’s one-stop breast clinic for a specialist opinion. Despite expecting it to be nothing, she was diagnosed with breast cancer that day.
“I remember looking at him and thinking: ‘God, am I ever going to see my baby go to school?’ It was completely shocking,” she said. “The connotation of cancer is death… Immediately you think: ‘Well, that’s it. I’m never going to see my baby go to school, or anything like that’.”
Treatment and a decade of remission
Macrae underwent chemotherapy from February to July 2005, a mastectomy of her left breast in October 2005, and radiotherapy from December that year. She described the experience as a “lonely, lonely time”, surrounded by older patients and unable to relate to peers.
After finishing treatment in December 2005, she remained cancer-free for 15 years. During that time, she watched Cameron succeed at school and go on to university, and she set up her own travel insurance brand specialising in people with cancer. She took hormone therapy for a decade and had regular check-ups, thinking “everything was fine”.
Secondary diagnosis in 2020
In 2020, she developed a persistent cough. “At the back of your mind, you’re always worried it’s going to be secondary breast cancer,” she said. A chest X-ray came back clear, but scans and tests by a respiratory consultant revealed metastatic breast cancer in her lungs and bones.
Macrae was “shocked” by the July 2020 diagnosis, having “always thought I’d got away with it”. She began immunotherapy in August 2020, and three-monthly checks show the treatment is working. Her diagnosis came during a Covid lockdown, adding isolation to her fear.
Support from Future Dreams
Macrae found support through Future Dreams, a charity founded in 2008 by Sylvie Henry and Danielle Leslie, who died from secondary breast cancer in 2009. The charity offers practical and emotional support, including communities, workshops, and therapies.
“My life just changed completely,” she said of discovering the charity via Instagram in 2021. “I was finally able to meet people in the same boat as me, the same age as me, going through the same things as me.” She added: “It is even more scary this time because it’s not curable at all now.”
Six years on, Macrae continues immunotherapy as her first-line treatment, with scans every three months. When it stops working, she will move to a different treatment. Cameron is set to graduate from university in summer 2027, and she hopes to see many more milestones.
“I just want to make sure that I can see as much of Cameron’s life as possible,” she said. “We encourage him to fly the nest – he wants to travel when he finishes uni. Although I’ll miss him when he goes, it’ll be our excuse to follow him around the world! Then there’ll be something else. Can I see him buy his first house, or something like that? I didn’t dare dream about this 22 years ago.”
