“If I testify today, it is to show that one can have cancer and continue to move forward in life”. Like one in eight women in France, Pascale Le Bris has been confronted with breast cancer. Behind the red on her lips and the blush in her eyes, it’s hard to imagine the suffering endured by the manager of the Indigô beauty center who, throughout her treatment journey, wanted to keep her head held high. For her, for her family and her clients who gave her the strength to fight.
The unthinkable? He suddenly invited himself to her home on January 4, 2021. A mammogram revealed an abnormal mass. After a biopsy, the result falls, like an earthquake. “I was at the salon and, between two clients, my doctor told me by telephone that they had found breast cancer”. The shopkeeper must then go to the Quimper polyclinic and meet a surgeon. “I was still in total denial at that time,” she admits. The medical team is reassuring and invites her to get closer to the Kis network, which accompanies all those suffering from breast cancer free of charge. Pascale Le Bris is operated on twice. Five lymph nodes are removed, including one containing cancerous cells. An implantable chamber is then installed: a device allowing drugs to be injected directly into the body without going through venous injections, which are often painful for patients.
Then the chemotherapy begins. It must be spread over six months, with a weekly session, followed by six and a half weeks of radiotherapy in Brest. “For me, it was double pain because I imagined going on sick leave and having to close my salon. My oncologist then said to me: “But why would you want me to arrest you?” This sentence was a real liberation for me. Knowing that I could continue to work changed everything,” says Pascale Le Bris, her eyes filled with emotion.
I have had incredible support from my clients. They said to me: “Pascale, you’ve been supporting us for 15 years, now it’s up to us to do so”.
Supported by its customers
So, in her living room, the young fifties makes it a point of honor “not to change” her “way of life”. Despite the fatigue and pain associated with the treatment, she pampers her clients, as she always has. “But I had incredible support from them. They said to me: ‘Pascale, you’ve been supporting us for 15 years, now it’s up to us to do it’”. These words warm his heart. Above all, they make it possible to break the taboo around the disease. At the same time, the mother, attached to her femininity, takes care of her like never before. “During the chemotherapy sessions, the nurses couldn’t believe my beautiful nails and my complexion! laughs Pascale. “If I organized my daily life around the disease, I did not let it take over,” she underlines.
A fight far from over
From now on, her hair will gradually regain its previous length. Her last mammogram, done last April, turned out to be positive. However, the fight is far from over. “I will be under surveillance all my life. Months after all that, I remember what I went through and it’s sometimes difficult, ”she confesses. Thanks to the association Entraide cancer, she performs health sports sessions every Wednesday evening at the Concarneau hospital. By her example, the shopkeeper wishes to show that one can follow “an extraordinary medical journey”. “We should also not hesitate to turn to associations”, she specifies. So, to help them in this month of pink October, the Concarnoise has decided? to sell, in its beauty space, candles, the profits of which will be donated to Kis and Entraide cancer. Small flames that will, for sure, revive hope in many patients.
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