A Welsh MP who has been diagnosed with breast cancer has vowed to keep working through her treatment. Claire Hughes, the Labour for Bangor Aberconwy, felt a lump in her armpit during the summer and went to her GP, after being told it was cancer.
The 46-year-old had an operation last week and is now waiting further tests to set out the future for her. She chose to tell people about her diagnosis and has released a video via social media.
She says she wanted to be open with people but also encourage any woman who finds a lump to get it checked.
Ms Hughes said she felt pain, and then a lump in her armpit when MPs were on their summer break and despite there being no history of breast cancer in her family, her mother died aged 63 from lung cancer, and she went to get it checked. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
She went to her GP and was sent to her local hospital, Ysbyty Gwynedd, where she's been having treatment since. Now recovering from an initial surgery she expects she will need radiotherapy and chemotherapy, she said.
Since cancer was confirmed, she said she has focussed on the practical things she can do. "I think I've just got to focus on the practicality of it. I don't think I have any other way of doing of it.
"I have to try not to worry about what I don't know. So I need to wait for my results and then see what happens," she said.
She's now had her first surgery and is awaiting for the tests to tell her what type of cancer it is, whether it has spread or what the next treatment will be.
"There's no point in me worrying about that until I get to that point," she said. "I did spend two days, right at the beginning, on Google, but I had to stop myself because I don't know what type of cancer it is, what the treatment will be, so there's no point me Googling that.
"I think my brain is very much sort of like 'I cope with things by dealing with what I know', and trying not to worry about the rest of it until I do know.
"I am sure I'm in the position of not having properly [emotionally] dealt with it yet, but until I know, I can't plan. I'll know more in two weeks, but I don't know how much I'll be able to be in Parliament. I don't know if I'll be able to be there at all if I'm immuno-compromised," she said.
Her diagnosis came just after a promotion, with her taking a junior role in the Wales Office, and 15 months after she became an MP. "The reason I stood in selections [for Labour] I'd lost my mum, my dad had been very ill and got better. My kids are older and teenagers now, and I thought, 'Maybe I'm over the worst of the middle aged bit so I'll try this now', but it was such a blow.
"I'd just had that promotion and literally two weeks after getting that I got this," she said.
Since making her diagnosis public she says she's been overwhelmed by messages from colleagues, from all parties, but also constituents.
"People have been amazing," she said. "I've had so many people have reached out and said such lovely things. I feel so supported. There's no other place or role I feel you'd get such an outpouring," she said.
She has made her diagnosis public very early on, something she says is a conscious decision.
"I feel like it's easier than keeping something secret.
"I live in the constituency I don't want to feel like I can't go out of my front door because I don't want people to see me looking ill.
"I'm having treatment at Ysbyty Gwynedd which is 10 minutes up the road and every time I go for at least three people I know," she said.
"I don't want to have to feel like I'm hiding something. I think it'll make mita lot more difficult, but also for my kids, because they're teenagers and I don't want them to think they've got to keep it a secret either.
"I don't really know what it's going to look like, and it might actually be a lot easier than what I think but I feel it's easier to get it out there," she said.
Plus, she hopes by speaking out, anyone who finds a lump, or suspects anything is wrong, to get help.
"I could so easily have put that call to the GP off a bit longer, I did change the appointment a couple of times, but then thought 'ok, I'll go'' but I was a bit blase.
"I went because it was the right thing to do not because I was particularly worried about it.
"But because I'm only 46, and I don't have a history of it in my family, I'm fit and well and I could have put it off. Even if you're young you should still check anyway, because once you start looking into you realise that actually this type of breast cancer does happen to lots of younger people who are premenopausal.
"So I think it's just really good for everyone just to think when you go to bed tonight to check," she said.
"I would rather people know so they don't think I'm not turning up to things as well or asking why i'm not there. I'd rather not be making excuses and just be upfront with people.
"I also appreciate that everybody is completely different, not everyone might want to be as open about it but this is my practical way of thinking the best way of dealing with this for me and my family, and I decided to be open about it and asking people to check their boobs," she said.