Below is the article which appeared in the Sunderland Echo, Tuesday 11th September 2001.

The article below appeared in the Sunderland Echo, January 15 2002:

ACTION DEMAND TO MAKE DOCTORS MORE AWARE OF RARE AGRESSIVE CANCER

A woman whose rare form of breast cancer was overlooked by doctors is making progress in her mission to save others lives. Elaine Cummings underwent six courses of chemotherapy, a mastectomy then a course of radiotherapy once it was realised that she was suffering from Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC). The undetected tumour had grown to 5 cm and had invaded her lymphatic system.

When she was finally on the road to recovery, the 47 year old single-handedly launched a campaign to protect other women from a similar ordeal. Elaine, who lives in Thornley, is pressing the Government to ensure that all GPs quickly refer patients to breast specialists if they show any symptoms of IBC.

She launched her own website in an attempt to raise public awareness of the disease - the most lethal form of breast cancer often misdiagnosed as mastitis because of the similarities in symptoms. The site also features a petition to be presented to MPs to highlight public support for the referral to breast specialists. Almost 200 people have signed the guestbook, she has hundreds of emails of support and the website has had over 8,000 hits since August 2001, from people all over the world.

Thanks to the success of the website, Elaine has received a donation of £700 from a lady who sadly lost her mother to this aggressive disease. The money will be spent on printing leaflets which Elaine hopes will help spread the word of her campaign and ensure more women are on their guard against IBC, symptoms of which include redness, swelling, retracted nipple, itching and pain. She hopes the leaflets will be distributed across the country with the help of a growing network of support.

Elaine wants volunteers to get in touch to hand out the potentially life-saving information or print copies from her website. "I have a growing network of support across the country and I think the website had helped a lot of people because there is a real lack of information about IBC in this country." she said. "Women need to know that you don't have to have a lump to have breast cancer. The campaign for proper examination is so important because every day counts with this disease and chances of survival are greatly improved if it is caught early."

This appeared in Woman magazine - issue dated February 11th, 2002

Radio Newcastle Broadcast on Mike Parr's show, Friday 19th September, 2003. Click HERE to listen to the interview.

Watch this space......