AFTER years of treatment for breast cancer, Colette Mills was recently given the all-clear. It was then - 20 years after she underwent a distressing and disfiguring mastectomy - that she began to think about breast reconstruction.

She was only 30, with two young babies, when the illness struck the first time. Treatment included a mastectomy, a procedure which has left long-lasting physical and psychological scars. Even then, the illness was only kept at bay and, after a third bout of cancer, Colette had to undergo more radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

"I thought about breast reconstruction years ago but I was advised against it because of on-going problems," says Colette, now 51, who lives in Hutton Rudby, near Yarm. But last December, after doctors at the South Cleveland Hospital breast cancer clinic in Middlesbrough discharged her, Colette's thoughts returned to reconstructive surgery.

"I did some research, I thought I am medically and mentally prepared, both my children were grown up and it is time to think about me," recalls Colette. Her interest led her to study various methods of breast construction and, through contacts, she met women who had undergone restorative surgery.

"There's one method where they take a flap of skin and muscle from your back and swing it around and make a pocket, but the one I was interested in involves taking tissue from the abdomen," says Colette, matter-of-factly. "I've spoken to women who have had it done, who have talked about all the pitfalls. It is major, major surgery and the risks are quite high." But it was the benefits of breast reconstruction that swayed her. "It's being able to buy clothes without having to look at the neckline, it's emotional , it's self-image, it is all these things and more," she adds.

Armed with the facts and determined to make progress, she went to see her local GP with a view to getting a referral for surgery. Her doctor warned her that the waiting list could be lengthy, but nothing prepared her for the bombshell contained in the reply from South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust.

She says: "I just couldn't believe it when I read the letter. They were saying I couldn't even see a specialist for a year, never mind have the treatment. The way it looks, I could be dead before the operation happened, if I have to rely on the NHS," she says.

It was the blunt statement "this is a non-urgent appointment" that caused her almost as much grief. "I am just so appalled, it is the wording of it as well. It is non-urgent, it is saying you don't matter."

The NHS trust is apologetic, but points out that a combination of short staffing and the need to give priority treatment to more acutely-ill women means that they are currently unable to offer breast reconstruction.

Colette appreciates that the NHS has concentrated its efforts on the early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer - something which claims the lives of 13,000 British women every year - but doesn't see why she should be written off for requesting surgery which would help to repair some of the damage done by the disease.

She says she doesn't want to sound "like a whinge", after all, she has got on with her life for the last 20 years, coped with treatment, and brought up two children. But, just when she had come to the carefully-considered decision to do something, the powers that be have said no. It is particularly galling when everywhere she looks she can see the pink posters and leaflets about Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

"It has been made worse by all this hoo-hah, all this stuff about doing things for women. If had an immediate breast care problem I could be seen in a few days and get it all sorted out. That is wonderful but what about me? I am at the other end of the scale," she says.

Elisabeth Davies, chief executive of the UK Breast Cancer Coalition, says: "We need to make sure that when we campaign for access to the best care, we are including the whole patient journey, and reconstruction is increasingly a very significant part of that. If we are delivering best care then we need to work towards delivering reconstruction when patients want it."

Katherine Murphy, spokeswoman for the national patients' rights group the Patients' Association, says: "Under the circumstances, it is unacceptable to be told she has to wait for 50 weeks for an appointment. When she had her mastectomy it was part of a package of care. They must carry the process through from beginning to end."

Colette says she really doesn't know what to do now. "I had this in my mind that I have had my last lousy summer. Next summer would be fine. Now it could be the summer after or the summer after that, or maybe I will just have to forget all about it."