A woman who thought her back pain was due to bad posture has been left devastated after being told she actually has incurable breast cancer.
Clare Sacco, 31, from Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, was first diagnosed with the condition in 2019 after she found a lump on her left breast while showering.
After a year of chemotherapy and a surgery to remove the lump, the marketing manager was relieved to receive the all-clear from her doctors.
So, when Clare started experiencing pain in her right shoulder and down her back in 2023, she put it down to working long hours while sitting hunched over her laptop.
But when she went in for a routine scan, she was stunned to learn her cancer had returned and that there were ‘excessive’ tumours on her lungs and liver.
Doctors said these tumours were affecting the nerve connecting the liver to the right shoulder and that’s what was causing the soreness.
Once she recovered from the initial shock of being diagnosed with stage four terminal breast cancer after overcoming the disease at the age of 25, Clare came up with a ‘living list’ and transformed her outlook on life.
‘It just made me motivated to enjoy things and live my life as fully as I can. I’ve got a living list, I don’t like the term bucket list,’ she said.
Clare Sacco, 31, from Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019 and given the all-clear but she was left devastated after discovering her cancer had returned (pictured with her partner)
Six years ago, Clare found a lump and went to the GP who ‘referred me to the breast clinic’, she said, adding she wasn’t expecting anything ‘serious’ due to her age.
‘I had scans and a biopsy and that came back that I had stage two breast cancer,’ Clare continued.
‘I just felt it in the shower when I first noticed. Because of my age, I had just turned 25, I assumed it was more hormonal rather than something more serious.
‘I had chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery to remove the lump.
‘I was given the all-clear that there was no sign of cancer in my body. I was so relieved, it felt like that part of my life was over now and I could move on and focus on other things.’
Life had other plans and, in 2023, Clare began to suffer from ‘really bad pain’ in her right shoulder and back – unaware that was a sign her cancer had returned.
‘I thought it was because I work a lot on my laptop, I thought I’d probably been in a funny position and trapped a nerve or maybe it was bad posture,’ she added
‘I found out there’s a nerve that runs from your liver to your right shoulder and one of my tumours in my liver was pressing on that nerve.
Clare started getting pain in her right shoulder and down her back in 2023, but put it down to working long hours on her laptop until doctors told her she had tumours over her liver and lungs
Now Clare is making the most of the time she has left and is ticking things off her ‘living list’ (pictured practising a firefighting drill)
During a routine scan in March 2023, doctors were concerned by what they spotted, so conducted more scans and discovered tumours on her liver and lungs.
Clare said: ‘I went in for a routine scan and the scan had picked up the corner of my liver and noted something that they weren’t sure what it was.
‘They did a liver scan and a chest scan and I got a phone call from my oncologist asking me to go to the hospital.
‘On that day they told me they found cancer on both of the scans.
‘There were tumours in my liver and my lungs and they were certain it was breast cancer that had spread so it was stage four and incurable.
‘It was quite extensive across my lungs and my liver.
‘I don’t know if it sank in that quickly, when I got the phone call I was at work and I left the hospital and just went back to work because I didn’t know what else to do.’
Clare said that after the news had sunk in she decided to change the way she approached her treatment and put her energy in to doing what she enjoys.
‘I thought “I’m going to be on treatment for the rest of my life so I have to carry on living my life I can’t just let it stop me”.
‘It just made me motivated to enjoy things and live my life as fully as I can. I’ve got a living list, I don’t like the term bucket list.
‘Writing it was really exciting, all the things I’d love to do in the time I’ve got.’
Clare is currently taking chemotherapy medication and said she is keeping a positive mindset as treatment is going well.
The marketing manager has completed round a quarter of her ‘living list’ and is hoping to visit Australia and snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef soon
Last year, Clare founded the Embers Charity that provides support for young adults with incurable cancer.
The charity founder said she had completed around a quarter of her ‘living list’ and that one of her biggest goals is to visit Australia and snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef.
Clare said: ‘It’s really made me appreciate the smaller things and making sure you’re really living every moment to the fullest and spending time with loved ones.
‘Not wasting time on things and people that don’t make your life better.
‘I didn’t expect it to come back. When I finished my treatment the first time, I saw cancer as something that would stay in my past and not something that could be in my future.
‘Last year I started a charity. I’ve made really good friends with other people that have a similar diagnosis.
‘You can talk about things with them that you can’t talk about with other people.
‘In terms of pain, t’s not every day but sometimes I wake up with some pain in my back or my side but it comes and goes.
‘I’m feeling really hopeful at the moment because the treatment is still working. I’m always hopeful, at the moment there is no treatment to cure stage four breast cancer.
‘I’ve made it a quarter through the living list, I’ve done a lot of the smaller things. I really want to visit Australia and one thing on my list is to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef. Hopefully I’ll get there.’
‘I want to show that you can still live life to the fullest even with an incurable cancer diagnosis.’
