Cash Boyle

Harold Hill resident Siobhan McKeon has just finished a 22-mile swimming challenge for Breast Cancer Research Aid. Swimming the length of the English Channel in 21 sessions is impressive by anyone’s estimation, but the 43-year-old has achieved this whilst living with secondary breast cancer. As proud as she is of raising more than £3,000 for her chosen charity, the avid West Ham fan is more driven by a desire to show that it is possible to live with cancer. Secondary breast cancer — or HER2-positive — is an incurable form of the disease which has already spread from the breast to another part of the body. As Siobhan explains, it’s quite rare: “I think it’s only something like 5 per cent of people find out straightaway that the cancer has spread somewhere else, and I was in that category.” Diagnosed in 2016 at 38, the mum-of-two is now four-and-a-half years down the line with treatment. Since that point her life has been an endless cycle of chemotherapy — 78 sessions in total, with three weeks in between — all undertaken at Queen’s Hospital in Romford.

Harold Hill resident Siobhan McKeon has just finished a 22-mile swimming challenge for Breast Cancer Research Aid. Swimming the length of the English Channel in 21 sessions is impressive by anyone’s estimation, but the 43-year-old has achieved this whilst living with secondary breast cancer. As proud as she is of raising more than £3,000 for her chosen charity, the avid West Ham fan is more driven by a desire to show that it is possible to live with cancer. Secondary breast cancer — or HER2-positive — is an incurable form of the disease which has already spread from the breast to another part of the body. As Siobhan explains, it’s quite rare: “I think it’s only something like 5 per cent of people find out straightaway that the cancer has spread somewhere else, and I was in that category.” Diagnosed in 2016 at 38, the mum-of-two is now four-and-a-half years down the line with treatment. Since that point her life has been an endless cycle of chemotherapy — 78 sessions in total, with three weeks in between — all undertaken at Queen’s Hospital in Romford.

Newham MPs have expressed their well-wishes for prime minister Boris Johnson, who remains in intensive care with coronavirus.