I spoke of my diagnosis in my previous post https://www.backsbrainsandboobs.com/blog/its-cancer but there is a part of this story I feel I need to dive deeper into and it is about time we do.

January 2019 is where this story actually began. In bed one evening, my cat incessantly pawing at my right breast and as I brushed him away BOOM there is was, clear as ever, a lump. Naturally I was beside myself. I cried. I panicked. I thought of the worst case and I didn’t sleep a wink. First thing the next morning, I got an emergency GP appointment and shakily went in and said I’d found a lump. She felt it and agreed and I was referred to the breast clinic at the hospital for an ultrasound. The following week that appointment came, and it’s a memory I will never forget.

Sitting in the incredibly overcrowded waiting room, it quickly became clear the Doctor was running behind. Several people kicking off, our appointments were all an hour late and they explained there were issues with the trains so staff were running behind. When it eventually came to my turn, I entered the room to a very flustered, angry woman who said top off and lay off. Hello to you too? At least the student doctor in the corner gave me a bit of a smile. But so I proceeded, laid down expecting the ultrasound only to have her pretty much poke it and say…

“You’re young, hormonal, normal. You’re free to go”.

I’m sorry what? I’m fully aware I’m young as I lay here at 24 years old but I came for an ultrasound, so where is it?

At this point she even got the student to come over and take a feel and asked her what she thought. The poor girl had no idea, and said it could be hormonal but she wasn’t sure.

“Nope just hormonal, you’re young”. There’s that word again…young.

I was never asked to go back. Never checked on again. So for 18 months those three words had so much power. I didn’t want to make a fuss even though something didn’t feel right. I believed the professional. Until July 2020 and I’m sat getting told not only did I have breast cancer but it’s now metastasised. I need brain surgery and I’m looking at 2 years left of my life.

It has been incredibly difficult the last 6 months to control my anger towards this situation. The mere fact that one person was running late; I was a nuisance being there; deemed as too young for cancer and so I was turned away; resulted in this mess. But instead of letting the anger consume me, I am trying to channel it into something good. Something that will make a difference. Because the absolutely terrifying thing, and something I have found very distressing, is the amount of women who have contacted me to say they have lost their daughters because of the same thing. Or girls who now have advanced cancer because they weren’t taken seriously when they first discovered the lump and were also sent back out the door.

This. Has. To. Stop.

I am living proof that cancer does not discriminate against age or lifestyle, so neither should the medical system. It takes a lot of courage for anyone let alone some so young to walk into that room, expose themselves and be faced with the idea they could have cancer. But to then have that courage shattered by being told your fine and to leave, only to discover you were never fine, is criminal.

This situation could of been so different. I could never of needed brain surgery or chemotherapy and I will never get this part of my life back. But I will fight this cancer to the ground along with fighting for justice and for changes to be made. It is currently not NHS policy to scan someone young with a lump. But the cost of an ultrasound is far less then the millions that are paid out in negligence claims against delayed and misdiagnosis. And is the cost of a scan worth the cost of a life? I will shout my story loud, I will fight this hard and I will get this to change.