Tracy Hobbis didn’t let her cancer diagnosis stop her as she completed her ‘5 Alive Challenge’ this month walking 55k in 5 days! Her original fundraising target was £555 however she has already smashed this raising over £3,000 as the donations continue to roll in! All the money she has raised will go to Solihull Oncology Day Unit to support other patients like Tracy in the future.

On the 10th Sept 2020, following a mammogram and biopsy, Tracy received the life changing news that she sadly had breast cancer. Tracy said: “I was devastated; it turned our world upside down. The consultant was lovely, he understood how we were feeling and described the next steps for us, however all I could think about was losing my hair!  From this moment on, the care I received was fantastic.”

“After my initial diagnosis things progressed very quickly, within three weeks I had the lumpectomy to remove the 14mm lump and had some lymph nodes removed for testing. Three weeks after that we were back at the hospital for the results. Great news! I was given the all clear, it had not spread into the lymph nodes! I needed four sessions of chemotherapy which started on the 25th Nov and by 11th Dec my hair had started to fall out! I decided to take control and shave it off, by my next session all my hair was lost. I found that the effects of chemo really hit me the following week. Tiredness and nausea took over for a while, I walked whenever I had the energy and I knew my hair would grow back so I didn’t let that bother me anymore. My last session of chemo was thankfully on January 29 this year. I had a week of radiotherapy in the first week of March, that made me very tired and I slept quite a lot at that time. Now I’m on hormone treatment which is making my bones and joints ache and I’m feeling much older than I should, but I have hair again!”

The treatment didn’t only affect Tracy, but also impacted her close family members. Tracy said “I have an awesome husband Trev, he supported me with lots of love and care throughout the experience, making sure I didn’t want for anything, taking me to all my appointments, making sure I didn’t miss any of my medication,  holding me during the bad days and taking time off work to look after me. Martin, my son was furloughed from work and stepped up, making sure the house was kept clean and tidy, doing the washing, ironing and cooking meals, leaving me to rest and recover. Love them both to bits!”

“I also have some amazing friends and family, I had a knitted blanket from one, flowers, cards and messages were received throughout my treatment from others. Every time I went for a walk, there was someone always ready to come out with me, whatever the weather or time.”

“I was 55 when I was diagnosed, so decided that I would do this challenge based on 5’s. From 5th May over 5 days, I walked 55 km to raise £555 for the hospital that treated me. The team at Solihull were amazing and I wanted to raise funds to help them improve the unit so that others can be treated as well as I was.”

“I had my lovely friends join me for my walk and when the challenge was completed I felt so exhilarated! It feels like the challenge allowed me to wipe the slate clean and I feel energised to take on life and leave my cancer journey in the past!”

If you would like to donate to Tracy’s fundraising page please click here.

To find out more about the work we do to support cancer patients at Solihull hospital please click here.

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