Author(s): Mandy Mcmillan

Cancer

Mandy McMillan was not a fighter. She was ordinary: a hairdresser, a party girl, a bit of a coward when it came to all things medical. The worst she'd ever fought was a cold. Then she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 27 - the second in her group of five friends to be struck down by the disease. She'd had a one in 1,900 chance of getting it. Her cancer was incurable; chemotherapy almost killed her, her body was so ravaged that she almost gave up, but Mandy battled on. Her one stroke of good fortune? The arrival of new wonder-drug, Herceptin. Then a miracle happened: Mandy gave birth to Britain's first Herceptin baby, a little girl conceived, carried and born to a mum on long-term treatment. A drug saved Mandy McMillan, now a daughter called Holly is keeping her alive. And she will fight every single day to see her child grow up.