Covid cancellation of routine check up and singing helped save nurse's life

North Wales Live

21-07-2025

A senior nurse reveals how singing in a choir saved her life after two cancer diagnoses - and the pandemic cancelling a check-up may have also helped keep her alive. Her body was fixed by the NHS yet her mind was broken after two gruelling cancer recoveries but now she feels her life is back on track.
As a busy ward manager for a North Wales hospital, Christine Plant knew perhaps more than most about the signs and symptoms of cancer. When she noticed blood in her poo occasionally, she knew the best thing to do was to get an appointment with her GP, and a follow up consultation for a colonoscopy.
As a full-time nurse, married with two teenage boys, a very busy and demanding job, Christine, 54, of Conwy, still believed that the demands of her job, perhaps were at the heart of her problems.
'I thought I eat healthy food I had a good BMI, and I don't drink much at all, so I would be ok. But I was told I had rectal cancer, commonly known as bowel cancer and that I would need surgery, a stoma and chemotherapy.
"I was 46 and hadn't expected to hear I had cancer, it was a frightening time and my sons who were age 13 and 16 at the time and I felt for them.'
Following surgery, chemotherapy and a stoma reversal, Christine went back to work and decided to switch jobs from being a ward manager to specialising as a breast cancer nurse in 2019. But just prior to the Covid pandemic in March 2020, Christine was called for her first routine mammogram.
This was cancelled due to COVID. A few months later Christine felt a small pea-sized lump in one of her breasts. Life was busy and she didn't make an appointment at the time. But as the first routine check-up had been cancelled she was called back in the autumn.
'It was September 2020 and I was called for my first routine mammogram. Working as a breast cancer nurse, I knew the protocol - but then I had a recall to say they wanted to see me and it was then I was told then I had breast cancer.
"I felt grateful in a way that I was seen in September rather than the March as it may not have been picked up six months earlier and it could have been a different story,' she says.
'Following surgery and radiotherapy to treat the breast cancer. I felt my body was fixed, but my mind wasn't.
"I remember going into clinic one day and thinking, I can't do this, I need to change something, my mind wasn't fixed and that's when Tenovus Cancer Care changed everything.'
Christine was scrolling through Facebook and came across an invitation for Sing with Us Choirs and that was to change the course of Christine's life. She explained: 'I got in contact with the choir master Andrew Roberts, and he asked me if I knew what type of singing voice I had?
"I didn't have a clue! I wasn't even sure I could sing, but that didn't matter, as the main thing was I felt welcomed as soon as I came through the door on that Tuesday night in Llandudno.'
'For the first six weeks of being in the choir I kept expecting someone to tap me on the shoulder and tell me to mime. Instead, I felt lifted in spirit and in my mind. I truly believe that singing in the Tenovus choir has probably saved my life."
She added: 'I never thought that singing in a choir would have been on my bucket list, but it was, and If I missed a choir night, I could feel myself going downhill and getting slightly more depressed.
'Having got so much out of the choir, I knew I wanted to give something back and so I decided to volunteer in the Conwy Tenovus Cancer Care shop a morning a week and I love it, I meet so many amazing people.'
And for Christine it didn't stop there, having chatted to Andrew about her feeling the need to give back, he suggested she join forces with the charity as a Community Engagement volunteer. Now Christine shares her story to groups, to encourage others that there is light and hope at the end of what can seem like a very dark tunnel.
'I always tell people how the choir made me feel whole again. I come out with a beaming smile every time I go.
"Since joining three years ago I have sung in the Tenovus 80th birthday celebrations in St David's concert hall with 400 other choristers, done a firewalk, an abseil, organised a Tea for Ten event, held a dressage event, Canter for Cancer and now organising a fashion show, using clothes and accessories from our shops.
"This is all done with the help of family and friends, old and new as we have a strong community here in North Wales.'
Since going through two major cancer operations and treatments, Christine is now working as a gynaecology oncology nurse and working with cancer patients. She feels her experience means she can look at things in a different way to perhaps some of her colleagues.
'I listen to patients and If I feel they need help with their mental wellbeing, I do refer them to the choirs."
* Christine has been recognised by Tenovus Cancer Care as part of the annual Volunteer Awards in the collaborative section for dedication and commitment to the work she does for the charity in her spare time.