A cancer survivor from Aberdeenshire, Gail Agar, will finally have her breast reconstruction surgery next month. She has been waiting for nearly eight years.
In May 2016, Gail Agar was diagnosed with cancer. She then had a mastectomy, an operation to remove her right breast. In the summer of 2017, when she asked her surgeon to reconstruct her breast, she was told to expect an 18 – month wait.
NHS Grampian admitted that some patients had waited much longer than they hoped. They publicly apologized for the delay.
Ms Agar, 56, is one of several women who contacted BBC Scotland News. Their breast surgeries were delayed, and this happened after a report on long waiting times. The women, aged from 44 to 73, said they were thankful to the NHS medics who helped them beat cancer.
However, many of them talked about the mental pain of living with one breast for years while waiting for surgery. Some also felt guilty for wanting elective surgery. Unlike their previous cancer treatment, this surgery would only improve their appearance, not save their lives.
Ms Agar was diagnosed with breast cancer just two days before her daughter’s second birthday. She had chemotherapy and a mastectomy, and then requested breast reconstruction. But while waiting for the surgery date, she learned to live with one breast. She said she couldn’t stop her life.
Since then, she got a new job and unfortunately lost her father. Her daughter is now 10, her mother is in her 80s, and her husband works offshore. In 2022, when she was given a surgery date with only a few days’ notice, she had to refuse it because she couldn’t arrange last – minute childcare.
Just before Christmas, she finally got a surgery date for February. It’s almost eight years since she asked for the reconstruction. Now, she said she wondered if she still needed the surgery when the date finally came. “I have gone for seven years without getting it. Should I choose to get it done?” she said. But in the end, she decided to have the surgery. “I don’t really look at my body. I just want to feel like a woman again. My boobs were a big part of me,” she said. “Every time I put on that prosthesis, it reminds me of my cancer journey. I just want to be over it.”
Breast reconstruction surgery usually takes over 12 hours and needs a lot of staff and theatre facilities. NHS Grampian said its “surgical capacity is still a problem” and it can’t do many breast reconstructions. They said they had to prioritize patients according to “immediate clinical need”.
The waiting times have been affected by the pandemic and the increased workload from mastectomies on women with the BRCA1 gene, also known as the “Angelina Jolie gene”.
A spokesman for the health board said they are now doing a small number of delayed breast reconstruction surgeries. They are giving priority to those who have waited the longest. “While we are happy to be doing these surgeries again, it will take some time to clear the backlog of patients waiting,” he added.
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