A mum-to-be who beat breast cancer against the odds says she is heartbroken that the treatment which saved her life means she will never be able to breastfeed her baby.
Claire Scott was given just a 30% chance of survival after doctors discovered three tumours in her breast that had already spread to her lymph nodes.
The then-31-year-old underwent gruelling chemotherapy before fighting for a double mastectomy, determined to do everything possible to stay alive.
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Now 44 and expecting her first child next month after four rounds of IVF, Claire says she is grieving a motherhood experience she will never have.
But after sharing her plight on Facebook, she made a startling discovery – an underground world of women who want to help.
“When I chose the surgery, I was in survival mode,” Claire, from Leeds, West Yorks, told Need To Know.
“I just wanted to live, I was so firm in my convictions – I fought for it.
“Now I’m pregnant, the breastfeeding issue has hit me.
“You really want to give your baby the best start in life and you have it rammed down your throat that breast is best.
“I want to say ‘I’d love to but I can’t.’
“It’s an experience and a sensation, and being able to nurture your baby as nature intended.
“I’m grateful to be here and I’m so lucky to be pregnant but there are those moments when I realise I won’t have that.”
Claire shared a post on social media asking fellow mums for their help and was inundated with responses.
She says around 20 women have offered to donate their own breast milk.
Claire said: “I put a post in a Facebook group last week explaining my situation and there’s an underground world of amazing women who will donate breast milk completely for free.
“I’ve already collected some colostrum from someone’s house
“It’s amazing.
“I feel so much better and my faith in humanity has been restored.
“We’re in the process of moving house but as soon as my freezer is set up, I’ll collect some milk and fill it up.
“My husband thought it was a bit gross at first, he was asking if they’d been blood tested but these women are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts and they send so much personal information about themselves like how much caffeine they consume and if they’ve ever smoked.”
Claire was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in April 2013 after noticing a shooting pain and a pea-sized lump near her right nipple.
The diagnosis came just a week before she was due to marry husband Alistair, now 40.
Claire said: “There were three tumours in my right breast and it had spread to my lymp nodes so the prognosis wasn’t strong.
“I went into full pragmatic mode and just wanted to deal with it.”
Claire says the reality of her situation truly hit home when doctors warned that chemotherapy would likely destroy her fertility.
She said: “It’s the first time I cried.
“I was so young, only 31.
“Alistair and I came from big families and wanted the same.
“It’s what we’d talked about.
“I adored my husband and wanted a family with my best mate but life just pushed us onto a totally different path.”
Six rounds of chemotherapy successfully shrank the tumours, but Claire then pushed doctors to remove both breasts.
The surgery saved her life, but she says coming to terms with her new body was incredibly difficult.
Claire said: “I didn’t want Alistair to see me.
“I had no confidence and the first time he saw my scars he said ‘oh my god, the scars are amazing, they’re healing so well’.
“I was young and attractive, we had a lot of friends, were sociable and I just remember the white bandages across my chest and seeing the flat space.
“I had to get my identity back.
“I struggled to dress myself, I had melt downs in changing rooms.”
Claire was declared cancer-free in November 2013.
She said: “Hearing I was cancer free was such a relief.
“I had so much gratitude.
“I just felt like I’d been given another chance.
“That experience changes you.”
The couple delayed trying for a baby for five years after Claire lost a friend she met during chemotherapy to secondary breast cancer.
She said: “One of my friends got secondary cancer in her breast which they found when she was pregnant.
“She got pregnant six months after treatment and she didn’t make it.
“She only had a few months with her baby.
“I didn’t want to leave a baby without a mum so I said I didn’t want to try until I’d been cancer free for five years.”
After the pandemic delayed their plans, the couple began IVF using eggs Claire had frozen before treatment.
Claire said: “It was the fourth attempt and we were so close to giving up.
“It was my last embryo and we didn’t want to do it anymore.
“No one prepares you for how hard it is to tell people who are rooting for you that it hasn’t worked and to see the disappointment on their faces.
“I even told the consultant that we were giving up but he said he didn’t think I’d rest unless I tried.”
In November last year, Claire’s final embryo was implanted and she discovered she was pregnant.
She said: “I had to pinch myself.
“We couldn’t believe it.
“I took about 10 pregnancy tests because we thought it couldn’t be right.”
As for whether she made a mistake pushing for the surgery, Claire is torn.
She added: “Nobody explained to me how the surgery could affect breast feeding and I don’t know if I would have done anything differently if I’d known.
“I didn’t think of the ramifications because I appreciated life so much.
“I’m never going to breastfeed my baby but if I was put in that position again, I don’t know if I would have made a different decision.
“I had everything to live for.”
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