Cassie Perrins remembers the moment her life changed forever.
It was 2020, and with two young girls, aged 11 and nine at the time, the Queensland mum noticed some niggling pain on the left side of her body.
What followed was years of specialist appointments, surgeries and chemotherapy — only for her oncologist to tell Cassie she was out of options.
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She was dying.
“I don’t run on time limits,” Cassie, now 48, tells 7Life of her devastating prognosis.
“I live every day as it comes and I know, now, it’s about the quality of time with my kids not the quantity.”
In 2019, Cassie, from Gladstone, 500km north of Brisbane, went in for routine breast cancer screening.
The results came back clear and she continued life as normal.
But in September the following year, her husband Lenny noticed a lump under her armpit.
A rush of doctors’ appointments followed, with a biopsy ordered immediately after her mammogram results were returned.
Devastatingly, the lump — which had been missed in her previous scan just the year before — was cancerous.
Diagnosed with stage three triple negative breast cancer, Cassie braced herself to tell daughters Anna and Jessinta.
“We don’t sugar coat anything,” Cassie says.
“It was of course a big shock. We were all very upset.”
With her next appointment a week away, the mum was in the dark about what her diagnosis actually meant.
She slipped into a world of ‘what ifs’ and could not help but imagine the worst.
“It’s just the unknown of what is going to happen,” she says.
“I had moments of just sitting there in tears saying, ‘Why me?’ but Lenny picked me up and told me to keep going.”
The next week, she was introduced to McGrath Foundation breast care nurse, Sally Haley, who was by Cassie’s side every step of the way.
Sally walked Cassie through her treatment plan and what she could expect, and even provided her personal mobile number if Cassie needed a listening ear.
“She also told me to stay off Google,” Cassie confesses.
“She said, ‘Don’t look at the internet, don’t search what my type of cancer means, just stay away’.
“The knowledge that she brought was the best.
“She was (like) my long lost friend. I didn’t feel uncomfortable with her ever.”
It wasn’t just Cassie who Sally supported, but the whole family — her open door policy meant Cassie’s girls and Lenny could ask any questions they had.
Cassie underwent eight rounds of gruelling chemotherapy and radiation.
By the end of her treatment, the mum of two had pre-empted her oncologist’s prognosis.
“The whole way through my treatment I knew it wasn’t working,” she says.
“Everyone was telling me that I was fine, but I knew.
“The lump was still there and it hurt.”
She was right.
Her cancer had almost doubled in size despite her treatment.
Cassie fought for a mastectomy followed by more radiation and oral chemotherapy.
“(I wanted) like a mop up, to kill any of those buggers (cancerous cells) that had survived,” she says.
As a result of the intense treatment, she struggled with everyday tasks — even the simple act of standing was like “walking on hot coals”.
Devastatingly, despite the surgery and rigorous treatment, the mum began feeling sharp pains in her ribs.
She knew her cancer had spread even before she underwent scans.
It was two weeks before Christmas 2021 when the results landed on her oncologist’s desk.
“They told me to just go and enjoy Christmas,” Cassie says, explaining she knew her results were bad news.
After the holiday break, her doctors confirmed the disease was now in her lungs.
Cassie tried to remain positive as she underwent more chemotherapy, in a cruel kind of deja vu.
But by August 2022, the cancer had spread to her spine.
“This whole time, Sally was there,” Cassie says of her dedicated breast care nurse.
“Someone I could ask my stupid questions or just talk with.”
Sally would phone Lenny asking how the family was doing and offering guidance on how to navigate the continuous treatment.
Her support meant the world to the family.
“Sally is more than just a breast care nurse,” Cassie says.
“She is my rock, she took me — no she takes everyone — under her wings.”
By being a constant shoulder to lean on, Sally also helped Cassie offer support to other cancer fighters on the chemotherapy ward.
Cassie calls herself an experienced chemo recipient and, as she sat side-by-side with complete strangers also receiving treatment, Sally was there.
With the strength Cassie found in Sally, the mum now pays forward the love and support she received — by holding the hands of others while they sit scared and feeling alone on the cancer ward.
Sadly, in September 2022, the pain in her ribs returned.
Cassie was ‘incurable’.
“They wanted to put me in palliative care but I just said no, I wanted to fight at home,” Cassie says, adding Sally helped her advocate for her wishes.
That was almost two years ago.
“I am living my best life not being in palliative care,” Cassie says.
The mum doesn’t live by her prognosis, nor is she counting the days.
For her, each moment is a complete blessing.
She has started planning her 50th birthday party, warning her husband she wants a big event.
Because every day is worth celebrating.
Help give the power of care this tax time by donating to the McGrath Foundation tax appeal before June 30, to ensure no one goes through breast cancer without care.
To learn more about how you can help individuals and their families experiencing breast cancer across Australia, like Cassie, visit the McGrath Foundation.