Telford breast cancer survivor Trudy sets herself 30 challenges

Mum-of-three Trudy Perks, from Ironbridge, who runs her own beauty salon in Telford, discovered she was pregnant with her third child on the same day she was due to start chemotherapy four years ago.

She said: "I decided to do 30 physical events in aid of Cancer Research UK, and have given myself 18 months to complete my list.

"I am up to 10, which includes three Race for Life events, a half marathon, a 30-mile mountain challenge in the Brecon Beacons, and the Three Peaks Challenge.

"I will do whatever comes along. People come to me and ask me to join them on things they are doing."

He next event will be slightly less strenuous than some of her activities.

She will be rallying her friends for a night at home in November, donating the money they would have spent on a night out to Cancer Research UK.

The idea is part of a fundraising drive called The In Thing.

Ms Perks, 36, who has two children from a previous marriage – Liam, 15, and Lauren, 11 – discovered she was pregnant with her third on the same day she was due to start chemotherapy four years ago.

She found a lump in her right breast and went to the doctors, who said it was nothing to worry about as she was too young at the time.

She said: "I insisted something was wrong so I was put on the waiting list to be tested.

"I think I waited for about three weeks, but when I went to Telford hospital for my mammogram it was clear.

"I said I knew my own body very well and something was wrong despite the test, so I was sent for an ultrasound, which was suspicious, so they then called me into a room to have a biopsy.

"I couldn't believe that I had found a lump. It was very tiny, only 8 millimetres, about the size of a pea."

Ms Perks, who runs the Tantalize salon in Queen Street, Telford, had the surgery in May 2009 and was due to start chemotherapy in July.

"The gap was due to me trying to get my eggs frozen before I started the treatment," she said.

"I had met a new partner and wanted to keep my options open about having another child but they wouldn't do it because I already had two children from a previous marriage.

"On the very day I was due to start my chemo I felt a bit funny, so I took a pregnancy test in the morning and it was positive. I couldn't believe it and was really happy.

"I immediately phoned the hospital and said I couldn't come because I was pregnant, so they sent me to the early detection clinic in Shrewsbury, had a scan and confirmed I was expecting a baby.

"If I hadn't checked that I was pregnant I could have miscarried because of the chemo because I was only four weeks.

"I don't know why I checked, but I am very, very aware of my body."

The chemotherapy was postponed until the following January, when Ms Perks was 20 weeks pregnant.

Her son Jax, who is now three, was born on April 2, 2010, after Ms Perks was induced at 37 weeks pregnant to tie in with her chemotherapy treatment.

"He was born with a lung deficiency and was on a ventilator for weeks," she said.

"They didn't think he was going to make it because his lungs weren't inflating.

"It was really strange because while he was in intensive care for three and a half weeks I was still having chemo once a week in the same hospital. While he was in neonatal I was going to the outpatients chemotherapy day centre. I was having really strange emotions at the time."

Jax eventually pulled through while Ms Perks, who is now in remission, continued with her chemotherapy treatment, followed by radiotherapy and then Herceptin.

Hosts of The In Thing nights can set a fundraising target for their group and collect donations up front or on the night.

For further information log on to www.theinthing.org.uk