Sue Pitts led an active, healthy life and had no history of breast cancer - but it didn't stop the disease targeting her. As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Durham City Council leader speaks to Women's Editor Lindsay Jennings.

AS leader of Durham City Council, Sue Pitts was used to handling a multi-million pound organisation with more than 1,000 employees.

She has been a Liberal Democrat councillor for 22 years and becoming council leader was a hard-won 24-hour a day job which she loved.

The controversy surrounding Durham's Gala Theatre, the North-East Regional Assembly vote and being the first LibDem leader of the council after a landslide victory over Labour were just some of the issues she had to deal with.

But just 18 months into her role came the discovery that she had breast cancer, and suddenly Sue found herself handling something she could not control.

Her diagnosis came after a routine mammogram. Following her hospital appointment, a letter breezed onto the doormat of her Durham City home inviting her back for further tests.

Sue was an active person who walked most places and played badminton. She had no history of breast cancer in her family and would sporadically examine her breasts for irregularities. The only risk factor for breast cancer had been in taking HRT to help with the menopause.

But the day before the return visit to hospital, she found one of the lumps in her breast. "I was getting dressed when I found it," she says. "And I just knew..."

At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, Sue had to wait an hour for the results of a biopsy. When she returned, there were a couple and two women in the waiting room. Sue was called in last and her fears were confirmed.

"I think my first response when I was told I had breast cancer was 'take them both off this afternoon!' Emotionally, I felt like my body had let me down," she says. "I didn't do the 'why me' bit. I thought this is the situation I'm in and I just thought 'how the hell am I going to deal with this?'"

One of the ways Sue did cope with the disease was to learn as much as she could about it.

"People say you should go and fight it and be gutsy but I think there are thousands of women who are brave and gutsy and they died. Does that mean they weren't gutsy enough? My way of dealing with it was to find out as much as I could about it. It was important to me, because I felt I could gain some kind of control again."

She also had to find ways to tell her colleagues, friends and family and, being a public figure, explain through the local media why she was stepping down as council leader.

"It was a huge thing to give up, but I couldn't have done all that and deal with the cancer. I had to resign," she says.

"It was really difficult to learn know how to go about dealing with it in public. I wanted to make sure that my friends and family knew about it from me first and there was a huge emotional job to do to deal with it. I couldn't talk about it at first without wanting to cry.

"But it was tremendously strengthening to be on so many prayer lists. I had so much mail - it was absolutely amazing and humbling to realise how many people reached out, and it was hugely sustaining. I took strength from them."

But for all the wonderful cards and letters she received, there were also the greetings she would rather forget.

"One woman came up to me and said 'I hear you haven't been very well, are you better now?' and I wanted to say 'f**k off'" she laughs incredulously.

"Then you would get others talking to you in that kind of sympathy voice, the one's who go 'how arrrrrrrrrre you?' in that kind of hushed and weird way. It's so much better to say 'how's your cancer?' because this is what people are living with and why pretend that it's something like a cold that you're going to be able to get better from?"

After her diagnosis, Sue underwent a single mastectomy and had some of her lymph nodes removed. She has yet to decide whether or not to have reconstructive surgery. It's a hugely personal decision which is on her mind. Those who have gone through the painful process and had a successful reconstruction are delighted with the results. But for those who have endured unsuccessful operations, it brings only further pain and distress.

There are also different types of surgery available. Breast implants come with the knowledge that they need replacing every 10-15 years, and if you're a woman in your late 50s, the thought of going through surgery again approaching your 70s can be unbearable.

Another option is to endure a free flap, where skin, fat and muscle is taken from an area such as the stomach to create a breast mound. But losing tummy muscle can increase your chances of a hernia.

"I think you have to want it very, very much to put yourself through it," says Sue. "It's not just for aesthetic reasons. I don't believe femininity is dependent on having breasts, but breasts are part of your body. I met this woman who had had it done and she said it was the best decision she had ever made. She just feels like she's got herself back, and I think that's how I would feel."

Since standing down as leader of the council, Sue has had more time to take stock and keep herself healthy. She goes swimming three times a week and does yoga. She has cut dairy products out of her diet and has lost a stone in the process. Consuming dairy products has been linked to an increased risk for breast cancer due to the high fat, animal protein and hormone contents. But there have been a number of conflicting studies suggesting there is no link.

Sue has also spent lots of time with her son Sebastian, 35, who is retraining to be a physiotherapist, and her six-month-old granddaughter, Melina, who live in Athens. Her daughter Sarah, 34, is a doctor.

Sue has found a great deal of support at Cancer Bridge in Hexham, Northumberland, which provides holistic therapies and support for cancer sufferers, their family and health professionals.

She did not need radiotherapy or chemotherapy or further treatment, but she feels passionate about the fact women with breast cancer are being denied life-saving drugs, those which can vastly improve the chances of survival but cost too much to be widely available on the NHS.

"It's absolutely appalling that there are women with breast cancer who will die because they can't get these drugs," she says. "It's unacceptable it's not been made available to them. What is disgraceful is that if a woman could afford it, she might be able to get it privately."

Sue was given the all-clear in April and has been told there is an 85 per cent chance she will still be alive in five years time. But there's a difference between knowing the cancer could come back, and living in fear of it, she says.

"It's not to say I wouldn't be worried if I found a lump. But now, I have a different life and I enjoy it. There's absolutely no point in looking back and being regretful.

"One of the things about cancer is that you realise that you might not have as much life as you expected and so it's important to enjoy it and live in the now."

* Cancer Bridge can be contacted on (01434) 605551 or at www.cancerbridge.org.uk.

l Darlington and Teesdale Breast Cancer Support Group (01325) 743290.