Survivors are proud to proclaim their recovery

"There are so many more people who recover and you don't hear about them. You only hear about those who don't," according to Ms Rosa McAuliffe, who was diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago.

"It happened very quickly," she said. "I didn't notice a lump but I discovered a change in the shape of my breast." She was not in the habit of checking her breasts, and at first "I thought it was the mirror. Yet I felt I should have it checked out."

Within days she was in hospital and had a mastectomy. Her left breast and all the glands in her upper arm were removed. She was 53 at the time. Six months of chemotherapy followed and five years of the treatment drug Tamoxifen. "Now I'm off everything," she said. Although she was in shock at the time, the mastectomy has not changed her perception of herself.

"Of course it can change your image and that's where husbands and partners and family come in. I look at it as Rosa went into hospital and Rosa came home with a few bits and bobs missing, but nothing changed. My brain wasn't gone - they just took one of my boobs."

As a challenge to some friends who said she couldn't do it, she took up golf. "I'm left-handed and because of the glands in my arm it was harder, but I got the greatest support from my club Glenmalure in Co Wicklow and last week won the president's cup." Rosa, who lives in Sandymount, Dublin is now involved with Reach to Recovery - cancer survivors who visit and talk to women who have been diagnosed.

Ms Margot Doyle from Clonskeagh, Dublin is another volunteer with Reach to Recovery who will never forget the date she was diagnosed with breast cancer - October 8th, 10 years ago.

She heard a discussion about breast cancer on a radio programme and checked her breasts. She was diagnosed with cancer and two weeks later had a mastectomy and has been clear since. "I phoned the helpline and it was wonderful to hear someone say they had breast cancer 18 years ago," said Margot.