It was a Saturday – my 34th birthday – and I’d been out for lunch with friends to celebrate. Later that evening, I was in bed and I was lying on my side with my hand was tucked under my breast. That’s when I noticed the lump. I couldn’t notice at all when I was standing up in front of the mirror. But I did immediately check the other breast and when there wasn’t anything in that one, I felt like this wasn’t normal. I thought maybe I was being dramatic, so I’d deal with it on the Monday.
I saw my GP that week and got referred to a breast clinic. The general advice from everyone I spoke to was that I was very young so it was unlikely to be cancer. I was told I needed a mammogram and ultrasound but the soonest I could get an appointment was six weeks away – and that was with a private clinic since I had health insurance.
When I was getting the ultrasound, the woman put the wand over the area where the lump was and her voice changed immediately. After everyone saying it probably wasn’t cancer, that’s when it all changed. That was the moment I started thinking this must be serious.
The diagnosis was stage 2 oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer. It hadn’t spread to any lymph nodes, but the lump was pretty big – around 2.5cm.
The way the testing went, I almost felt prepared when they confirmed it was cancer. It was when they told me I needed chemo that I broke down, the thought of this terrified me. Thankfully, I responded to chemo really well and my experience wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. The toughest part was losing my hair – as a 30-something-year-old your hair is such a big part of your identity so losing it was really confronting and emotional. After 20 weeks of chemo, I had a double mastectomy, and now I’m on hormone therapy for five years.
The fact it was caught early was a gamechanger for me because it meant my outlook was so much better. Before this diagnosis, breast cancer didn’t seem like it was relevant to me – I didn’t know anyone in my family who’d had it, so I didn’t think I was at risk.
I’d seen Breast Cancer Foundation NZ’s campaigns about self-checking plenty of times, and even though this wasn’t something I regularly did, it was the messaging about getting any changes checked out quickly that got me to act. I never thought breast cancer would happen to me, but I immediately knew what I had to do when I found the lump.
The Foundation’s latest campaign about checking in the shower is a fantastic idea – showering is something we do every day, so if you connect that with self-checking, that’s an amazing way to keep on top of it.
All of my friends now know the importance of self-checking because breast cancer has entered their world, it’s no longer something far away and disconnected. My story has made it more relevant to them, but not everyone knows someone who’s had breast cancer at a young age. So if I can help connect my story to other women like me and help someone else get an early diagnosis, that can only be a good thing.
My message to anyone who thinks they’re too young for breast cancer is to get checked out if you’re worried about anything that isn’t normal for you. If the question you’re asking yourself is “should I get this checked out?” the answer is always yes. There is a world where I could’ve gone, “it’ll be nothing” and not done anything about it. That is somewhat my personality, so I’m surprised I did do something. And I’m
