The founder and director of Sweaty Betty PR told The Daily Telegraph that she discovered a lump while showering just 10 days ago and expected to undergo a “partial removal” within days.
“The timing is extraordinary,” Roxy, 36, tells the newspaper.
“What I have experienced in the past three weeks is the most shocking thing I have ever experienced. I don’t think there is anything that could shock me more now.”
Roxy’s husband Oliver Curtis was recently sentenced to a maximum of two years for insider trading, although he could be released after one year on a good behaviour bond.
Mum-of-two Roxy says she told her husband, who is being held in Parklea Correctional Centre in north-west Sydney, about the diagnosis during one of the short phone calls allowed by the institution.
“Obviously he has got no control to be able to assist with anything, so it is particularly challenging for him. He is a broken person, an absolutely broken person.”
Roxy’s mum Doreen Davis, who underwent a mastectomy a decade ago, tells The Daily Telegraph that she has no doubt her daughter will beat the disease.
But Roxy, one of the hardest working publicists in the industry, says she’ll only know the battle she faces 10 days after her upcoming procedure.
“As for treatment; obviously radiation is a given,” she adds.
“It will be every day for the next six weeks and/or chemotherapy. But chemotherapy isn’t decided until after that 10-day mark, when they have had all the checks of what they took out.”
Roxy, however, says this latest setback won’t slow her down.
“There is no proof to say that stress brings this kind of things on. I don’t slow down.
“The reality of it is I have even more of a responsibility now to make sure I deliver not only for my family and provide them comfort and so on, but I also have a due diligence to my customers and my staff.”
Meanwhile, Roxy hopes her story serves as a reminder to all young women to get their breasts checked.
“I thought from reading all the information out there I was meant to wait until 40 until I got a mammogram.”
For more information on how to get a screening for breast cancer near you, click here.
