Sinead's Story

Sinead owes her life to medical research

Back in 2009, Sinead Forbes had just given birth to her third child, Louis, and was still breastfeeding when she began to
suspect something was wrong. Chronic mastitis led her to have a mammogram. 

“I will never forget the doctor’s face. It was ashen, and she just looked at me and said,

‘Sinead, I don’t know how to tell you this. I have got the worst news.’” Sinead had ductal carcinoma in situ.“My breast looked like it was full of shards of glass,” said Sinead, recalling seeing the results of the mammogram. The ‘shards of glass’ were actually cancer cells.  

Sinead had a mastectomy, but the cancer was found to be in 11 lymph nodes. The HER2 protein in Sinead’s body was driving it to spread quickly.  

HER2 is found on the surface of breast cancer cells in around one in five women diagnosed with the disease, and HER2-positive cancer cells tend to be more aggressive. However, research has made great progress in developing treatments – specifically the drug Herceptin – that target HER2-positive tumours more effectively. Herceptin helps slow the spread of and destroys breast cancer cells by attaching itself to HER2.

Sinead now has hope for a healthy future, having just completed her 16-month treatment program. She’s in no doubt as to what saved her life.

“I am a product of medical research. Without it, I would not be alive. If there can be more research into what causes cancer, and how can we control it, then that’s got to be a good thing for everybody.”