The loneliness of breast cancer treatment during Melbourne coronavirus lockdown

I’d never had a mammogram before.

I didn’t have a lump and I didn’t have any of the other warning signs that something might not be right in my left breast. I am not really sure what made me think I ought to have one just before my 45th birthday. I had always thought you had to be 50 to get a free mammogram, but when I asked my GP I was told they were free from the age of 40.

I booked my first mammogram just to check everything was OK.

What followed now seems like a dream. With dizzying speed — and on my own due to COVID-19 restrictions at the hospital — I spent four hours being scanned, undergoing an ultrasound and having nine biopsies taken. A doctor then stared at me sympathetically and suggested I bring a support person for the…