2 words you never think you’re going to be told… let alone at the age of 25.

Of all the things they say that helps to prevent cancer I pretty much ticked them all.

Active lifestyle… I train twice a day and do 25,000 steps… tick.

Don’t smoke… tick.

Drink under the limit… tick.

Plant based diet… tick.

Lots of fruit and veg… I aim for 10 a day…tick.

No family history… tick.

Wear sunscreen… I have tattoos so I wear factor 50… tick.

So you can imagine my confusion when the lump you find turns out to be trying to kill you.

Let me take you back to the beginning, January 2019. I’d just adopted my cat, Zazu, and we were chilling in bed one evening. He was padding away as cats do but he was incessantly padding on my right breast. I was thinking have I just adopted a right old pervert of a cat or what until I went to move his paw and felt a lump. I was pretty panic stricken at that moment and barely slept until 8am hit and I could call the GP and make an emergency appointment. I got seen the same day and referred to the hospital to have an ultrasound the following week. However, that didn’t quite go to plan. I was examined for all of 2 seconds and I still remember the exact words “You are very young, at 24 you are hormonal at this age, the scan isn’t needed its normal”…normal. For 18 months I went around thinking that lump was just ‘normal’.

Fast forward to July 2020, I was in the shower and I noticed a puckering of my skin…I knew this wasn’t “normal”. Due to Covid there was a two week delay so I booked a private clinic and got seen straight away. When I saw the consultant and he examined me, he sent me next door for an emergency ultrasound and biopsy. At the time I wasn’t worried, I thought this was all routine. Even to the point that after the biopsy I apologised to him if I had wasted his time. But I will never forget the moment that he looked me in the eye and said “Frances, I will have the results in three days time. For that appointment I need you to bring a chaperone”. I questioned what he meant, why would I need a chaperone? Is that what everyone does? It was when he said to me that both himself and the radiographer have voiced their concern looking at the scan I just knew in my gut it wasn’t “normal”.

Three days later I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. It most likely began to grow when I was around 23, so if the scan/biopsy was done last year guess what…it would of been cancer then too.

My diagnosis was a little more complicated after that, a “medical confusion” and I’m a “grey area” and I will document this openly to help anyone else going through this and create awareness. But If there is one thing I aim to get from speaking out about my journey it’s to change the procedure and the opinion on age. Cancer doesn’t discriminate against age, and neither should the medical system. If a lump is found, scan it…you could be saving a life.