Faye Roberts, 46, from Southend, noticed a lump under her right breast while in the shower in March 2023.
The following week, she went to the doctor and had an ultrasound and biopsy.
That same day, Faye received the devastating news that she had stage three breast cancer that had spread to her chest.
Faye got through her diagnosis and treatment using hypnotherapy – recorded scripts that put her into a hypnotic state – and said it significantly improved her mental state.
Faye, a hypnotherapist from Southend, said: “When I was diagnosed I went into a really dark place.
“For me it was stage three, which was very shocking and upsetting, and I started hypnotherapy on myself.
“I wrote a script that visualized chemotherapy working and killing the cancer, and I listened to it back. It really helped me get out of that dark place.”
“I was scared of having chemotherapy so I wrote the script to help me visualize it and how it was helping me.”
Faye then underwent chemotherapy for five months starting in April 2023.
She says hypnotherapy helped her with her treatment because seeing the chemotherapy attacking the cancer cells allowed her to “visualise the treatment working”.
She said: “I was really worried because I didn’t know how I would react to the chemotherapy.
“I was scared of it so I tried to change my mindset and wrote a script that visualized chemotherapy curing the cancer.
“I could feel it working so I guess it helped. The lump didn’t seem to get smaller but I was feeling positive.”
“I didn’t feel the tumor shrink until I finished my last chemotherapy treatment.”
Faye underwent a partial mastectomy in November 2023.
A few months after the surgery, it was discovered that the cancer had spread to the axillary lymph nodes, and he was scheduled to undergo surgery to remove it in December 2023.
She said: “The pain after the operation was really bad. I used hypnotherapy to help me change my way of thinking.”
“It helped me because I felt like I had control over my recovery.”
Faye then underwent 20 rounds of radiation treatment, and in February 2024, she rang the bell to signal she was cancer-free.
She said: “It was a really emotional moment. I was in tears. It’s been a year of treatment.”
“It was great to share that with the kids. They’ve been through a lot and I want people to know that there’s something out there that can help them.”
“Hypnotherapy really helped me, I was in a very dark place after going through something like this myself.
“It really helped me get through a difficult situation of diagnosis and treatment.”
