Kirsty will be star guest

Kirsty Topham

Countdown to the weekend’s big Race for Life

AN Army cadet instructor who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 27, will be guest of honour at Oldham’s Race for Life.

Kirsty Topham will set off participants at Alexandra Park on Sunday before joining in herself with a huge gang of friends and family.

Despite undergoing chemotherapy, Kirsty is still keen to walk the Oldham course, where she has previously volunteered in her role as Detachment Commander for the Greater Manchester Army Cadet Force.

And she will be cheered along by a gang of 42 friends from the Army Cadets, her sister Kimberley and mum Kay.

Kirsty, from Dukinfield, was 26 when she initially found a lump on her left breast last year, and with her age, doctors thought it was a cyst.

But when the lump had grown by December, Kirsty was keen for it to be removed and underwent surgery.

On her 27th birthday in February, she received a call from the hospital to tell her the breast tissue had proved to be cancerous.

As the cancer has also spread into one lymph node, she needs chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and because she’s young and childless, her eggs were also frozen.

She started chemotherapy in April which has made her hair fall out, and doesn’t complete all her treatments until October.

Kirsty said: “Being told I had breast cancer when I’d only just turned 27 was a huge shock.

“My mum took the news badly. But she has been my absolute rock every step of the way. I just keep thinking about all the other women we met at the hospital who had much more advanced cancer than me.”

Oldham Race for Life event manager, Nina McGregor, said: “We’re honoured that Kirsty will set off the participants.

“She has always been a tremendous help as a volunteer.”