[Cat purring]

My name's Amanda Nash. I live in Bognor Regis in West Sussex.

I'm 43 and I've got metastatic breast cancer which has spread to my liver and to my bones.

I found a lump in my left breast, but only a very small lump,

and I got an appointment with the breast consultant on the Friday.

He did a biopsy on the lump, and Ray came with me,

and he just literally said to me, 'I'm really sorry I'm the one who has to give you the bad news

you've got breast, bone and liver cancer',

and I think my mouth must have dropped to the floor.

The future had just come to a grinding halt I think. The future for me would have been to go to New Zealand

but unfortunately, due to diagnosis, that won't ever happen now.

Yes, you do get low, and you do worry about what's going to happen to everybody after you've gone.

I'm usually fine. I'll be fine.

I wanted to continue to work. My employer, they were very sympathetic, supported me through all my treatment,

but then after six, eight months they started thinking, 'Oh you're looking a bit better. So you can do a bit more work'. '

I got to a point last year where I felt, 'Why am I putting myself through this, when I don't need to be put through it?'

You know, I'd started to realise then that I could do things for Macmillan, for Cancerwise, our local support group.

That, I saw, was my forté, that I wanted to carry on and do something for them,

rather than 'Amanda, the Human Resources, Payroll Manager'. I didn't want to do that anymore.

Because of the cancer diagnosis, Ray said, 'I know that you're keen to get married,

and obviously, we're never quite sure of the future, so, let's get married'.

Yeah, it was April, it was actually sunny.

It had rained the night before and I said, 'No' but it was absolutely fine, it was absolutely sunny.

I had a burgundy wedding dress, because I knew I'd never get married in white or cream,

it just wasn't me, but yeah, we had an absolutely fantastic day.

Well, we've had a few ideas about things that we can do because obviously, I want to cram in as much as possible.

We're going to Egypt in January. I've always wanted to go there,

So we're going to go and do Cairo for three days and go down the Nile for four days.

So that should be quite nice, see all the sights and everything.

I've done a lot of things in my life. I'm 43, I've done lots of things anyway, been to lots of places, seen a lot of places,

I just think that Egypt was one of the places that I really wanted to go.

The way I feel about Macmillan is they've been really helpful to me,

you know, it's been fantastic, it's opened my mind to all sorts of things

ways I can help, help other people as well as myself. It's given me an incentive to do things I think.

I just think that's great, the more aware I can make people of it, the better it is really.

[New speaker] For information, help, or if you just want a chat, call the Macmillan Support Line on 0808 808 00 00 or visit macmillan.org.uk