I’ve always been diligent with my health so when I had a scan on a whim at 39 I never expected the grim diagnosis that followed: ‘I was fit and healthy, there were no symptoms’

Lisa Seiffert had no symptoms when she impulsively booked a mammogram with David Jones while shopping – only because of her split-second decision to reveal a sinister diagnosis.

The model, then 39, regularly underwent screening tests for breast cancer because the disease ran in her family, but the pandemic left her slightly behind.

Lisa had been living in New York for 24 years when the world shut down and her health insurance lapsed. She postponed the test a bit until she flew back to visit family in Queensland in late 2022.

“While visiting my father, I happened to see a film screening in the shops and decided to go in,” Lisa told FEMAIL. “The technicians said they would call me in a few weeks with the results, but I haven’t heard from them for a while.”

Lisa finally called them back and they casually told her that she had some calcification in her right breast.

‘They told me it was nothing to worry about, that it was normal. But over a month later I went back to Sydney and had an ultrasound – that’s when they found the lump,” she said.

Lisa was diagnosed with stage two slow-growing hormone-related breast cancer and required immediate surgery.

Dr. Sarah Forsyth performed a lumpectomy and removed her lymph nodes; she was lucky the cancer hadn’t spread yet.

“I remember telling my mom and just breaking down. She lost her sister to breast cancer and she looked at me and said, ‘I wish it was me,’ which broke my heart,” Lisa said.

She had to stop working during her treatment and left her life in America behind.

“When you have cancer, it’s a full-time job,” she said. “My goal was to get to the end of the tunnel, I couldn’t focus my energy anywhere else.”

Lisa moved back Down Under for Australian health insurance and even stayed after radiotherapy.

“I only came with one suitcase and ended up staying for almost a year, which I wasn’t prepared for,” she said.

“I had to turn my apartment in New York into an Airbnb, and I had hundreds of people walking in and out of my house while I was receiving treatment.”

Lisa explained that she was in “survival mode” all the time and didn’t have it in her to think too far ahead.

‘I was forty and started over in a new country. I had to find my people, my places. It’s still very difficult. “It felt like I was going to school in a new country where I didn’t know anyone,” she recalls.

Lisa mourned the loss of her life while adjusting to her new normal.

‘I missed my friends, my yoga, my local haunts. “I am forever grateful for Australia’s public healthcare system, but it was difficult to give up a country I had lived in since I was 16,” she said.

Lisa revealed she struggled to find an apartment in Sydney and had to sleep in a family friend’s guest room for weeks before she could move into her own home.

‘I was desperate because I was starting treatment soon so I really needed a place to live. After endless offers and inspections, I finally got a two-bedroom home,” she said.

“I wanted the extra room in case I needed a family member flying down from Queensland to help me.”

Lisa underwent 19 radiotherapy treatments, five days a week, for a month.

‘I cried tears of joy when my doctors told me I didn’t need chemotherapy. “I felt so happy, I just don’t think I could have gone through this mentally,” she said.

After her treatment, Lisa was prescribed a five-year course of hormone blockers and goes back for screenings every year.

She has undergone three rounds of IVF and frozen five eggs, but she is not allowed to become pregnant because of the medications she is taking.

“I really want a child of my own, and it’s heartbreaking that cancer has taken that away from me,” she said. ‘I’m 41 now and don’t have many options. I didn’t choose this.’

Lisa was also assigned a cancer psychologist to deal with the trauma of her diagnosis, who helped her find ways to manage her mental health.

‘I tried to be as active as possible. I didn’t have a car, so I took the bus to the hospital. I walked 25 minutes from my house to the bus stop, went for treatment and then walked 20 minutes to McIver’s Ladies Baths, she said.

‘My doctors recommended salt water, and it really helped me. The ocean is my healing place.”

Lisa swam and splashed around for half an hour before catching the bus and walking the 25 minutes back to her house.

“During treatment I literally got 90 minutes of exercise a day,” she marveled.

She didn’t want to get into a rut because she was afraid she would stagnate, so she kept her body moving as much as possible.

More than a year after the end of her radiotherapy, Lisa is still trying to find her feet in Australia.

One aspect of her treatment that stood out to her was the physical environment of the hospital.

The hospital felt like a gloomy, dark and lonely place, devoid of life and color.

“I remember sitting there and wishing there was something to distract me from my reality. People in hospitals are going through the scariest times of their lives and all they have to look at is a blank wall,” she said.

Lisa founded a program called ‘Art for Healing’ at the Royal Hospital for Women which aims to provide the hospital with art from local artists.

“Our healthcare workers are doing everything they can to give us the best care possible, the least we can do is make their workplace welcoming and bright,” she said.

The program has received 30 pieces from Australian and international artists so far, and Lisa hopes to eventually have enough to hang around the five-storey hospital.