WHEN Julie Braddock found a lump in her breast, she didn't for one minute imagine that it was cancer.

The mother-of-three was so convinced she'd be fine that she even took her eight-month-old daughter Lucy to her appointment to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital to pick up her test results.

So being told she had cancer came as a massive shock.

"I'm quite a positive person so I didn't think for a minute it would be cancer," said Julie, from Millhouses. "The thought had just not entered my head. When they told me, I completely lost it."

Husband Paul was called to the hospital and the couple then had to deal with the shock, get their heads around the news and plan how they would cope as Julie, then aged 39, went through her treatment.

Soon after, she had the lump removed along with the lymph glands and began chemotherapy.

At first, Julie didn't want anyone to know she had cancer but, after discussing this with her breast care nurse, she was gently persuaded that this was something that would be even harder to deal with without the support of her family.

"It was Christmas time and I suppose we didn't want to worry anyone. But we're a close family and we realised they were strong enough to cope."

But breaking the news was very difficult.

"Telling my mum was awful of course but after the initial shock it was a case of "right what can we do practically to help", which of course became invaluable."

Julie's mother Clare Sellars moved in with the family to help look after the children and other relatives and friends helped out as often as they could.

Julie, now 42, had chemotherapy every three weeks and, for much of the time, was too exhausted to be able to deal with the day-to-day work of looking after her family.

Friends prepared meals and also rallied round to take Archie, then five, to and from school and have him over for tea, and take Hugo, then three, to and from pre-school.

Another friend with a baby the same age as Lucy made up batches of pureed foods.

"It was like a military operation and we had a timetable up," recalled Julie, who went through many tough times.

"I think the hardest moments were after my first bout of chemotherapy.

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