'What We Did When Mummy Got Cancer': Mother's heartbreaking discovery and the emotional way she told her children

'I just kept thinking, 'I'll get round to it at some point.''

When Katherine Simpson-Jacobs realized she had breast cancer, she had no idea how to tell her daughters. After several weeks of worry, she realized she wanted to write "What We Did When Mummy Got Cancer," a child's book to explain what cancer is and how to treat the disease in a child-friendly way.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Simpson-Jacobs was 34-years-old and going through treatment for breast cancer when she wrote, "What We Did When Mummy Got Cancer."

The book compares cancer to "a bruise on an apple" and helps parents struggling to communicate the condition to their children in a "safe and gentle way."

When Simpson-Jacobs noticed her breast "looked a bit different" in 2013, she thought it was an age-related occurrence and thought nothing of it. It was not until six months later that she saw a doctor.

She admitted to FEMAIL, "I just kept thinking, 'I'll get round to it at some point. I had taken one of my children to the GP when I decided to get it checked out. It was playing on my mind but I didn't feel ill."

Simpson-Jacobs was referred to a breast care clinic for a mammogram, which the mother-of-two described as "a horrible experience," adding, "It's not nice.

The mammogram was concerning, leading to a biopsy and the eventual cancer diagnosis. By the time it was detected, Simpson-Jacobs was still in early-stage breast cancer.

"I didn't have a lump, which is one of the key things - people think you need to have a lump to be investigated. It can be any kind of change, really."

In her attempt to spare her daughters, Simpson-Jacobs admitted she avoided the word "cancer," just in case one of them heard someone at school lament the loss of a loved one to the disease.

When she asked nurses and advisors for child-friendly materials to explain the disease, the only book they suggested was "Mummy's Lump," which shows women undergo chemotherapy and lose their hair.

Not wanting to confuse her children, Simpson-Jacobs decided to write "What We Did When Mummy Got Cancer."

"I just felt there was a really gap [sic] and I wanted to help other people," she explained. "I came up with the story - it's like an apple that's gone bad and they seem to accept that and understood it. I explained that the bruise needs to be cut out so the rest of the fruit doesn't go off.

"I wasn't one day contemplating a bowl of fruit," she laughed. "I just thought, 'How can I explain that a part of me is going to be taken off?' And that's all I could think of. I guess my way of expressing myself is to write."

The book was published before Christmas 2013 and helped her talk to her girls, who were able to understand.

"Now, they are completely comfortable with it. If we hear something on the radio about cancer they'll say, 'Oh mummy, that's what you had.' I left it a while because they didn't know to be frightened of it. They were fine with it."

With help from Ipswich Hospital and Cancer Campaign in Suffolk, the book has been published physically and is available in a digital version. 100 percent of the proceeds go toward Cancer Campaign in Suffolk and to printing and distribution expenses.

Simpson-Jacobs explained: "I just want to get it into the hands of people who need it. I think it would work for anyone trying to explain the situation to young children. It will hopefully help get over the barrier of, 'What on earth am I going to say to the kids?'

"Just that act of sitting down with a child on your knee and opening a book is such a comforting and well-understood feeling and scenario that automatically everyone in that moment feels safe, even if what you're going to tell the child in that moment is a bit unnerving.

"People always say in these situations, 'Oh, you're so brave' but you don't have any choice. You just have to get on with everyday life, which I think is good as it stops you wallowing in it."

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