Meet Emma

Emma was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. She was 39 and a single mum to four children: six-month-old triplets and their big brother, Jake. “I’d had a lump for several years and had a mammogram in 2007, but I was told it was nothing,” she recalls. “The lump changed during pregnancy, but my relationship was ending and it was such a stressful time that I just ignored it.”  

After being diagnosed, Emma was treated with chemotherapy to shrink the tumour, then surgery and radiotherapy. “It was tough and tiring in all the ways you can imagine, but we stumbled through and got on with it.”  

At the end of 2014, the magical ’all clear’ was within touching distance; Emma felt great and her children were happy and settled at school.  

Then it all fell apart. After nearly five years of being cancer-free, Emma was given the devastating news that her cancer had returned. She had more chemotherapy and then moved on to ‘maintenance’ treatment with three weekly infusions of Pertuzemab and Herceptin, one of the first targeted cancer treatments.   

“It was even harder the second time round – even more of a shock and my worst nightmare come true but, again, the treatment worked and I found myself back in remission and trying to get life back on track.” 

In January 2019, Emma was diagnosed yet again with tumours in her left breast and is now on long term targeted chemo, Kadcyla.  She had her second mastectomy the following November.  She’s responded really well to the treatment so far and is hopeful that her next scan will show No Evidence of Active Disease. 

Known as @limitless_em to her more than 60,000 followers on Instagram, Emma has used social media to talk openly about the highs and lows of living with cancer, parenting and family life. 

She is also an author – her memoir ‘All That Followed - a story of cancer, kids and the fear of leaving too soon’ was published in 2018 – and lives in London with her four children.