Mum who defied ‘35% chance of dying’ from breast cancer celebrates 10th anniversary of diagnosis canoeing Swedish river

A Kent mum-of-two is marking the 10th anniversary of her cancer diagnosis by tackling a canoeing expedition along Sweden’s Harken river, wild camping along the way, as cancer has taught her to “not take life for granted anymore”.

Vicky Keep, 51, was diagnosed with stage three lobular breast cancer in 2016, after noticing “quite a big lump” in her breast in the shower. Following a single mastectomy, six months of chemotherapy and daily radiotherapy, she was told she had beaten cancer in January 2018.

Along with two of her close friends, Vicky will canoe the length of the Harken river in northern Sweden this September, navigating rapids, porterage through dams, and living in the wilderness for eight days, in a challenge that she said is “not going to be a breeze, but something that will feel like a big achievement when we do complete it”.

She hopes to raise £10,000 for Odyssey, an “incredible charity” that helps people with cancer regain their enjoyment of life.

“Reaching 10 years is something that I’ve got to celebrate,” Vicky told PA Real Life.

Vicky, who lives in Whitstable and works in catering, discovered a lump in her left breast in May 2016 when, after a friend told her she had found a lump in her breast, she realised she’d never checked her own before.

That evening, in the shower, she felt “quite a big lump”, but assumed it “can’t be anything sinister”, as she thought breast cancer lumps were usually pea-sized.

She left it for a month, thinking it “might just go”, but ended up going to the doctor. She was promptly referred for a mammogram, and said “that was the first point when I thought it might be something sinister, because there were two nurses in there who were looking at each other with a mild look of concern”.

Following an ultrasound and biopsies, she attended an appointment with a consultant at 4pm on June 22 2016, and assumed that “they’re not going to tell me any bad news that late in the day”.

However, she was told she had lobular breast cancer which had spread to her lymph nodes.

“You just don’t see it coming,” said Vicky, a mum of two daughters aged 17 and 21 who is celebrating her 25th wedding anniversary this year with her husband, Gary.

“I remember just sitting there hearing these words: ‘Sorry, it is breast cancer’. They’d also found a tumour in my armpit as well, and it was quite a large tumour.

“My first question to him was: ‘How am I going to tell my girls?’. They were seven and just turned 12 at the time… you immediately just assume you’re going to die. And I did have one of the most aggressive types of cancer. It was stage three, grade three. So when you actually looked at the statistics, the five-year survival rates were actually quite low.”

Vicky was booked in for a mastectomy three weeks later, where she also had her affected lymph nodes removed, and six weeks after the surgery she began chemotherapy.

After six months of chemotherapy, she had a month’s break before beginning daily radiotherapy for a month.

She was told that with the surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, her five-year survival chance was about 65%, but “the way I was looking at that was like, well, that’s a 35% chance of me dying”.

However, in January 2018, Vicky was told there is No Evidence of Disease, (Ned) after a gruelling 19 months of cancer treatment and surgeries.

“Now life is completely different. I very rarely think about cancer, but I didn’t think I’d be here to be saying that,” she said.

Over the past eight years, Vicky has taken on numerous challenges to raise money for cancer charities, such as Cancer Research’s Walk All Over Cancer, where she and her family walked 10,000 steps a day throughout March 2018.

To mark the 10th anniversary of her diagnosis, Vicky wanted to “do something big”, something that would raise a game-changing amount of money for a less-well-known cancer charity.

Vicky first came across Odyssey shortly after her cancer treatment, when she was invited to one of its retreats for people living with, or who have survived, cancer.

The charity takes people who are battling cancer, have finished treatment and are trying to build their lives back up, or people facing a terminal diagnosis for residential weeks away “where you basically challenge yourself to do things which are out of your comfort zone”.

“Had I known what was on the agenda for that week, I would never have signed up for it…” said Vicky, who chose not to disclose the itinerary to protect the surprise for future participants.

“But it was such an incredible week that when I came back, it just kind of felt like my life was going to be okay.

“I might not survive five, 10 years, but I’ve got to make sure that the life that I’m living is worthwhile and counted. It gave me a completely different outlook on life.”

When Vicky learned that Odyssey was planning an expedition to canoe Sweden’s Harken river in September 2026, Vicky decided that was exactly the challenge she was looking for, and even signed up two close friends for the ride.

“I phoned my best friend… She was like, ‘100% – 10 years is something to be celebrated. Let’s do something that will challenge us both’,” Vicky said.

Another close friend, who Vicky met through her local soul choir and learned battled cancer at the same time, going through the same surgery and treatments, also agreed to take part in the challenge.

In addition to canoeing the river’s 150-kilometre length, the team will face various hurdles along the way.

“There will be some small rapids in areas, and some dams that we have to use porterage to move the canoes between,” Vicky explained, adding that she was told by someone who has previously canoed the river that “at one point you have to carry all your equipment three-and-a-half kilometres to the other side, where you have to then put your boats back in.”

They will be wild camping and cooking on open fires along the way, and while temperatures hover around 12 degrees during the day in September, they can drop close to zero at night.

“I’ve never done wild camping,” Vicky admitted.

“It’s not just wild camping. There are no toilets, so it’s wild pooing and all that! That is panicking me beyond what I can imagine, I’m like, Oh, God, this is way out of my comfort zone!”

Vicky and her friends will begin their training in April, and have been advised to swim plenty of front crawl to develop the muscles they need for rowing.

They will also do some sea swimming, “because that’s more challenging and it’s cold”, as well as taking the kayaks out for extended sessions.

The team aim to raise at least £1,500 each, as that will cover their participation costs, but they hope to raise £10,000 in total so they can donate some valuable funds to Odyssey.

Vicky’s fundraising page can be found here: gofundme.com/f/canoe-believe-we-are-canoeing-harken-river-for-odyssey