Mum with cancer has UK’s first breastbone transplant with success

A young woman is now enjoying life as a full-time mum following a difficult breast cancer diagnosis and receiving a pioneering breastbone transplant.

Nathalie Brett first noticed a lump in her left breast in September 2010 at the age of 24, while studying tourism management at Bournemouth University.

But because she young, fit and healthy, doctors didn’t suspect cancer.

During the year that followed, the student found herself plagued with exhaustion – forcing her to abandon her previously active lifestyle. She also noticed changes to her breast and the lump.

Recalling the events, Nathalie says: ‘I thought I was depressed, which was out of character for me as I’d never struggled with moods before.

‘My mum noticed my skin around my breast was discoloured, it was going darker and she told me I had to see a doctor now.’

Shortly after, Nathalie received the shocking news that she had stage four metastatic breast cancer, which had spread to her sternum (breastbone) – meaning it was incurable.

Nathalie, now 34, says: ‘I can remember that day so clearly, everything I wore, the weather, it was a sunny and warm day. I remember going to the garden centre and picking up flowers, paying for parking.

‘I was in this waiting room, I was half the age of just about everyone there. My mum was probably the person closest to me in age. I didn’t belong in that waiting room.

‘When you’re given such unexpected and traumatic information, I think your body goes into shock.

‘I can’t even remember crying in the hospital, but I broke down in the car.’

Nathalie was told she could have as little as three years to live and says she felt a lot of anger after the diagnosis.

She adds: ‘I was holding on to a lot of anger. I was so active, I’ve never done drugs, I’ve never smoked, I ate well, yet I was diagnosed with this life-limiting illness at the start of my adult life.

‘I felt like I’d had my freedom stripped away from me. This incurable illness meant I’d be on treatment for the rest of my life, even if it was short.’

Nathalie underwent six rounds of chemotherapy in Sweden in May 2012 – then a mastectomy in October and 25 rounds of radiotherapy from November.

In September 2013, she returned to the UK to finish her degree, still going back to Sweden every three weeks for treatment.

However in the spring of 2015, Nathalie was suffering from agonising chest pains and learned that the cancer had spread to more of her sternum, forcing her back to Sweden for more life-saving chemotherapy, every week for nine months.

During this time Nathalie got married but was incredibly upset that her treatment would affect her fertility. 

She adds: ‘I started to struggle with my infertility, it was the one thing that made me feel like I didn’t want to continue.

‘Lots of my friends were having children and it just made me feel so disconnected.

‘I was told I absolutely could not try for a child, as it would likely kill me, and I probably wouldn’t be able to get pregnant.

‘The choice was taken away from me at such a young age and I cried whenever I saw someone with a child.’

However, after stopping chemotherapy and anti-hormonal treatment, Natalie and her husband found out they were expecting in early 2020.

The couple welcomed their ‘miracle’ baby daughter Elsa in September.

Nathalie, who now lives in Oxford, said: ‘I was carrying the most precious thing in my body and I had to do everything in my power to protect that.

‘I came from a state of feeling so unwell, with my body and medication fighting each other to doing the most natural thing in the world and I felt wonderful. It was great.

‘Holding Elsa felt completely surreal. It was the most beautiful day of my entire life. She was perfect.

‘It’s almost indescribable. She’s a bit of an extra miracle. She’s the girl who should have never been born.’

However, due to the cancer in her sternum metastasizing, Nathalie was told there was a risk it would eventually become immune to the medicine that was keeping her alive.

But Nathalie also found out that she was eligible for a pioneering breastbone transplant, which could extend her life – a procedure she accepted.

The 10-hour transplant operation – known as an allograft sterno-clavicular reconstruction – at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital involved six surgeons, two anaesthetists and 10 support staff.

Nathalie’s entire breastbone and part of her collarbone, where the disease was concentrated, were replaced with bone from a deceased donor.

‘I was baffled that they were able to even do something like this and I was excited at the prospect of what it could bring,’ adds the 34-year-old.

‘I was offered a once in a lifetime operation and, although it was a hard decision to make, I had to take the chance, even if it had never been done before. I had complete faith in the team which made the decision a bit easier.’

The operation was a success and has given Nathalie more time – but she explains that she will still have to live with cancer and is likely to be on treatment for the rest of her life.

However, she’s grateful to the team for giving her a future and more time to enjoy with her now 18-month-old daughter.

She continues: ‘The transplant has given us hope that we didn’t have before. I need to look at a pension scheme and go to the dentist again.

‘For almost 10 years I was living three months at a time and I’d never allowed myself to think of the future, as there was a distinct possibility that it would never happen.

‘Now I often have to remind myself that I can look forward to every milestone, and every little thing.’

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