Planning a wedding is often regarded as one of life’s most stressful experiences
But for Linsey Donnelly, it proved a motivating force which helped her through a gruelling course of chemotherapy after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2012.
Instead of focusing on her illness, the 30-year-old Peterhead woman transformed her attention to her big day and resolved that the show must go on.
The former teacher said: “I didn’t find it stressful. It was a good distraction, as all the way through my chemo, I had a wedding to plan.
“I took the days I needed to be ill and if I needed a day in my bed, I had a day in my bed.
“I did enough things to still feel normal and go out.”
She first became aware of a change in her body while watching an advert for the Scottish Government’s breast cancer campaign featuring Elaine C Smith.
Mrs Donnelly said: “The advert was about how lumps weren’t only the only signs of breast cancer.
“She held up different pictures of boobs and she would drop them and it would show the difference.
“My boyfriend, now husband, joked that he didn’t need to see all that, but it made me think I had noticed a change and I checked and found a lump.”
Originally from Glasgow, she hadn’t registered with a medical practice, but visited as a temporary resident.
The doctor told her at the time it was probably just a cyst, but subsequently referred her to breast screening.
Eight weeks later, she arrived for her appointment where she was given her diagnosis.
Mrs Donnelly said: “I never told anyone I was going to the clinic. When a doctor tells you it’s just a cyst, you think it’s just a cyst.
“On the day, I dropped my car off at the garage.
I walked in there myself thinking I would just be in and out.
“The first doctor I saw brushed it off and did an ultrasound and I was sitting in the waiting room thinking I had wasted everyone’s day and had taken time off work for nothing.
“But then I went in for the ultrasound, which then turned into a biopsy, and then I had a mammogram and a chest x-ray.
“After that, I was waiting for the doctor to come in, but the first person who came was a Macmillan nurse, so that’s when I knew it wasn’t a cyst.”
Although her diagnosis came completely out of the blue, she didn’t worry or panic, but simply accepted she faced a new challenge in her life
She returned to the clinic three days later for an MRI and, by this point, had told her parents, which she described as the toughest stage of her journey.
As Mrs Donnelly said: “The hardest thing was phoning my mum.
“Everyone else panics about you, so then you worry and try to make sure you stay positive, so they don’t feel down.”
As well as marrying Martin when she completed treatment, Linsey, along with her husband, became a foster carer for a 10-year-old girl and three-year-old boy.
Before she was diagnosed, Linsey went through IVF as she had always wanted children of her own.
She said: “I suppose I just thought I’d grow up and get married and have kids.
“I meet Martin before I was diagnosed and we’ve been together five years.
“Once we sat down and talked about it, we decided we did want to have children and we bought our house before we got married.
“We feel really lucky as we’re in a good situation and we have the space and enough love in the house to share it.”
Mrs Donnelly remains an upbeat character. She no longer frets about the little things in life and, once she finishes her hormone treatment, will start thinking about having children of her own.
She said: “We’ll carry on with foster care as we can have three foster children at a time.
“It’s hard work, but it’s rewarding as you know what you are doing is a good thing.”
