Mother becomes face of breast cancer campaign

A mother of three, who has experienced a breast cancer diagnosis, will star in a national charity advertising campaign to "support the nearly one million people that are living with or beyond breast cancer".

Paula Van Santen, 51, from Banbury in Oxfordshire, was diagnosed in April 2022 and opted for a mastectomy and reconstruction surgery in June the same year.

UK's leading charity Breast Cancer Now said it was its "bold ambition" that by 2050, "everyone with breast cancer will live and live well".

The campaign has been informed and shaped by a survey of more than 3,000 people affected by the disease.

The charity said that new data showed 920,000 people lived with or beyond a diagnosis of breast cancer in the UK.

It said the figure was "projected to rise to over 1.4 million by 2050", which is why it committed to "Breast Cancer Now until we're Breast Cancer Never".

As part of the campaign, Van Santen will be on TV, radio and online, alongside Bury actor, producer and breast cancer advocate Victoria Ekanoye.

Van Santen described the diagnosis as "devastating because you don't know which path it's gonna take you down".

"But I was optimistic, research has come on so far and you know that there is a future for yourself and you look to the future rather than to the now," she said.

After her surgery, a CT scan result in July 2022 showed the cancer had moved to her lungs.

Van Santen said that meant her disease classed "as incurable, but treatable".

"It will eventually wake up and start to spread again but at the moment it's not active."

The charity said the survey that shaped the campaign painted "an unvarnished picture of how breast cancer devastates lives, what people want to see Breast Cancer Now do about it and what it means to them to live well".

Van Santen said she was "not prepared to give up on life yet" and was still working and travelling.

"I want to support the nearly one million people that are living with or beyond breast cancer, just like me," she said.

"I want them to be able to have the confidence to speak up, get the support they need through Breast Cancer Now and other charities, and I think it's really important that we bring that forward."

Charity chief executive Claire Rowney said they were "so grateful" to Paula and the rest of the cast for sharing their experiences and making the campaign "so powerful".

"Behind these figures are too many human lives being touched and ripped apart by this devastating disease," she said.

"The need for our work has never been greater and we're relentless in our determination to be Breast Cancer Now until we're Breast Cancer Never."

The charity said it would be doubling its research spend and "supercharging progress" on incurable secondary (or metastatic) breast cancer, exploring how medicine can be tailored to individuals and how existing drugs could be used for treatment.

You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.