Vicky Keep, 51, was wondering how she would tell her children
A mum-of-two was left wondering how she’d tell her children when she realised she had a ’35 per cent chance of dying’. But now she is commemorating the 10th anniversary of her cancer diagnosis by embarking on a canoeing expedition along Sweden’s Harken river, wild camping throughout the journey, 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 discovering “quite a big lump” in her breast while in the shower. After undergoing a single mastectomy, six months of chemotherapy and daily radiotherapy, she was informed she had overcome cancer in January 2018.
Alongside two close friends, Vicky will paddle the entire length of the Harken river in northern Sweden this September, tackling rapids, portaging through dams, and surviving in the wilderness for eight days, in a challenge she describes as “not going to be a breeze, but something that will feel like a big achievement when we do complete it”.
She aims to raise £10,000 for Odyssey, an “incredible charity” that supports people with cancer to rediscover their zest for life. “Reaching 10 years is something that I’ve got to celebrate,” Vicky said.
Vicky, who lives in Whitstable, Kent, and works in catering, found a lump in her left breast in May 2016 when, after a friend mentioned she had discovered a lump in her own breast, she realised she’d never examined herself before. That evening, while showering, she felt “quite a big lump”, but presumed it “can’t be anything sinister”, as she believed breast cancer lumps were typically pea-sized.
She waited a month, thinking it “might just go”, but eventually visited her GP. She was quickly referred for a mammogram, recalling “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”.
After an ultrasound and biopsies, she attended a consultant appointment at 4pm on June 22, 2016, assuming that “they’re not going to tell me any bad news that late in the day”. Instead, she was diagnosed with lobular breast cancer that 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 underwent a mastectomy three weeks later, during which her affected lymph nodes were also removed, and six weeks following the operation she started chemotherapy. Following six months of chemotherapy, she took a month’s break before commencing daily radiotherapy for a month.
She was informed that with the surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, her five-year survival rate was approximately 65 per cent, but “the way I was looking at that was like, well, that’s a 35 per cent chance of me dying”. However, in January 2018, Vicky received the news that there was No Evidence of Disease (Ned) following a punishing 19 months of cancer treatment and operations.
“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.
Throughout the past eight years, Vicky has undertaken numerous challenges to raise funds for cancer charities, such as Cancer Research’s Walk All Over Cancer, where she and her family walked 10,000 steps daily throughout March 2018. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of her diagnosis, Vicky wanted to “do something big”, something that would generate a game-changing sum of money for a lesser-known cancer charity.
Vicky first encountered Odyssey shortly after her cancer treatment, when she was invited to one of its retreats for individuals living with or who have survived cancer. The charity organises residential weeks away for people battling cancer, those who have completed treatment and are rebuilding their lives, or those facing a terminal diagnosis, where they “challenge themselves to do things which are out of their comfort zone”.
“Had I known what was on the agenda for that week, I would never have signed up for it…” Vicky confessed, choosing not to reveal the itinerary to preserve the surprise for future attendees. “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 discovered that Odyssey was organising a canoe expedition down Sweden’s Harken river in September 2026, she decided it was precisely the challenge she needed and even enlisted two close friends to join her.
“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 shared.
Another close mate, who Vicky got to know through her local soul choir and discovered was battling cancer at the same time, undergoing the same surgery and treatments, also agreed to participate in the challenge. Besides canoeing the river’s 150-kilometre stretch, the team will encounter various obstacles 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 detailed, adding that she was informed 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’ll be wild camping and cooking on open fires during their journey, and while temperatures hover around 12 degrees during the day in September, they can plummet close to zero at night. “I’ve never done wild camping,” Vicky confessed.
“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 pals will kick off their training in April, and have been advised to do plenty of front crawl swimming to build up the muscles they need for rowing. They’ll 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’s goal is to raise a minimum of £1,500 each, which would cover their participation costs, but they aspire to raise a total of £10,000 so they can contribute some much-needed funds to Odyssey.
Vicky’s fundraising page is available on GoFundMe.
