These 10 women have come together for a charity calendar after they all had breast cancer.

The women are all from the same family and over the last 17 years, they’ve all been treated for the disease.

The group is aged from 47 to 81 and the includes mums and daughters, aunties and sisters-in-law, with eight being blood relatives.

The family’s battle started in 2002 when Joyce Waite, 78, was diagnosed and ended when her nephew’s partner Jane Reeson, 54, in 2017.

Now the women are coming together for the calendar, which is part of numerous fundraising events organised by Vanessa Haw.

Vanessa, 55, a shop owner from Coningsby, Lincs., has also set up a Facebook group sharing her family’s experiences.

She was diagnosed with cancer after an annual mammogram in April 2015.

In May 2015, Vanessa had a left-sided mastectomy and had all lymph nodes removed from her left arm, followed by more operations to remove damaged skin and a right mastectomy in October 2016 as a precaution.

She said: ‘We’ve all fought cancer together as a family and shared our experiences with each other which has really helped.

‘The fact ten of us have gone through it has been a huge help.

‘We’re a close family so we’ve been there for each other.

‘That support and knowing someone had breast cancer but survived has been brilliant.

‘Even on the worst days, you knew there was life, there was hope.

‘I had my last yearly mammogram in April 2015. I got called back and had to have a deep core biopsy whilst I was there.

‘I got diagnosed with breast cancer four days later.’

Vanessa refused radiotherapy because of how it affected her mother Barbara Limb who was diagnosed with cancer in 2003.

Barbara, 81, was the second woman in the family to be diagnosed with cancer.

She started experiencing pain in her breast in July 2003 and went to her GP

She was referred to Grantham Hospital and had a mammogram and two biopsies before being diagnosed with breast cancer.

She said: ‘I was sat at my friend’s house when she said to me “Barbara you have got a pain” and she asked me what the pain was like.

‘When I told her she said it was the same sort of pain she had. She made me go to the GP that afternoon.

‘The doctor saw me and got in touch with the local hospital and the next week they did a mammogram and a biopsy on the same day.

‘The doctor said that there was something there but they had missed it so I had to return for a second biopsy and the results confirmed I had breast cancer.

‘I had my op on 19 August 2003 and had lymph nodes removed and a lumpectomy.

‘This was followed by a full course of radiotherapy which still burns me all these years later. But I’m a survivor.’

Barbara’s niece Trudie Smart, 47, a teaching assistant from Boston, Lincs., was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2008.

She had eight cycles of chemotherapy before having a mastectomy in November that year followed by three weeks of radiotherapy.

She said: ‘My breast cancer was ER+ which meant I produced too much estrogen so I opted to have my ovaries removed.’

Just months after her diagnosis, her mum Shirley Limb, 72, of Kirton, Lincs.., was diagnosed in September 2008.

Shirley was given the news following a routine mammogram.

She had a lumpectomy and lymph nodes removed just before Christmas that year.

She then had radiotherapy every day for three weeks and was told she was in remission in the summer of 2009.

Despite not being a blood-relative, Vanessa’s brother’s partner Lorraine Hill, 61, was diagnosed after finding a large lump in her breast in 2005.

The barmaid and mum-of-one, from Horncastle, Lincs., had chemotherapy to shrink the tumour before undergoing a partial mastectomy.

Sister-in-law Hazel Holland, 53, was also struck down when she had a mammogram in February 2015.

The mum-of-two and breakfast club supervisor had an operation in March that year to remove a lump and lymph nodes, followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

She said: ‘I just took it all in my stride and got on with life.”

Three years earlier in 2012, Hazel’s mum Mary Limb, 74, was told she had breast cancer after doctors found a lump.

She was in hospital for four days after her operation to remove the lump and lymph nodes followed by radiotherapy.

Two years later Mary’s sister-in-law Margaret Bedford, 74, was diagnosed in August 2017.

The mum-of-three had a lumpectomy the next month and following four weeks of gruelling radiotherapy was declared cancer-free.

A month later, in October 2017, her son David’s partner Jane Reeson, 54, was diagnosed with cancer.

The timeline of diagnoses

2002 – Joyce Waite
2003 – Barbara Limb
2005 – Lorraine Hill
2007 – Shirley Limb
2008 – Trudie Smart
2012 – Mary Limb
2015 – Hazel Holland
2015 – Vanessa Haw
2017 – Margaret Bedford
2017 – Jane Reeson

The delivery driver and mum-of-two children had a mastectomy on her left side in November that year.

She has been told to take estrogen-blocker Tamoxifen for five years but so far all tests have come back clear.

She said: ‘I couldn’t feel a lump at all, so if it hadn’t been for the mammogram it could have been a different story.

‘Obviously knowing what many members of the family had gone through meant I was conscious of the importance of getting regular check-ups.’

The family’s calendar will be officially launched next month with all proceeds going to the charity Breast Cancer Care.

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