My cancer journey started in 2011 just before my 32nd birthday, when I found a lump on my left breast.
None of the doctors seemed concerned, assuming it was a benign lump they like to call a breast mouse. So you can imagine my complete shock upon collecting the biopsy results, that the lump was cancerous. (I couldn’t call it ‘cancer’ at the beginning.)
Many scans and tests were carried out over the following weeks, and I started swotting up on Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (my cancer’s medical term). Surely I was too young to get this, I thought.
I was given a lumpectomy with sentinel node biopsy. Fortunately my nodes were clear, but they hadn’t managed to get rid of all the cancerous cells (DCIS being present in the margins). A left-side mastectomy followed three months later, with immediate reconstruction (an expander implant with strattice). Six months later I had my eggs frozen, before starting five years of tamoxifen treatment.
I’ve since had my implant swapped to a more permanent one, some nipple reconstruction (which I like to think of as origami) and nipple tattooing three times. I was discharged by my plastic surgeon, and now just have annual breast check-ups.
It was all a bit of a whirlwind to begin with – on the one hand, it seemed like it wasn’t actually happening to me but on the other, the subject of breast cancer was all-consuming. I felt quite isolated too, as any fellow sufferers I encountered were older than me, and invariably married with children – whereas I was young (in breast cancer terms), as well as being gay. My friends however were a great support. Body image was definitely an issue, especially when I started dating again, a year or so after diagnosis.
I’ve been a Someone Like Me volunteer since 2013. Please do feel free to write to me about anything relating to your breast cancer – or if you just want to chat to someone who’s been in a similar situation, I’m here, at the other end of an email.
You can email me at julia@breastcancernow.org.