I was 33 when i was diagnosed in June this year and and i found my lump purely by chance while drying myself after a bath. I was shown how to examine myself once by a doctor at a routine pill check when i was in my early 20’s but other than that i dont remember any publicity surrounding younger women and i dont think the doctor made it clear to me that it could happen before i hit my 60’s. I was ignorant about cancer before my diagnosis as there is nothing in my family and I always believed i was far too young for Breast Cancer so I rarely checked myself. I’m shocked at the amount of younger women i have spoken to since being diagnosed (mainly through this site). Although it is less common for women under 45 than say 60 it still happens and women need to know about it and take it seriously. I like the idea of the Dove real women campaign and also agree that leaflets should be given out at surgeries perhaps colleges or even uni’s to warn young girls of the importance of checking themselves. The biggest frightner for me is that because it is less common it is usually picked up at a more advanced stage and as a result the percentages of death are higher in younger women. One of my tumours (i had 2) was 5 and a half cm when i found it and i could kick myself that it grew to that size without me noticing because i never checked myself. Luckily with chemo my tumour has shrunk a lot and my prognosis is good. I’ve found chemo hard going at times. My Onc said that they were going to ‘throw the book at me’ as the tumour was so large, had already spread and i was at a young age. Maybe i wouldnt have had to have such brutal chemo if i’d bothered to check myself and picked it up earlier. I dont want any body else to go through this but i know unfortunately that it is going to happen time and time again unless something is done. The more women we can inform now, the better.
Sian x
Hi everyone, thanks for your comments, hopefully by gathering together some evidence of the “gap in the Market” of awareness we can push things forward. I’ll bump up the “how did you find your lump/symptoms” thread too as it’s a great place to post your experiences and is an intestine read. It certainly paints it’s own picture of recurring themes of lack of awareness in both the young women and the medical professionals.
Leah, do you know who will be looking at our idea? I just thought we might have more chance of getting it off the ground if a well regarded and established charity was putting it forward with us.
Thanks again everybody
Vickie
Thought people on this thread might be interested to see this article in the Sun today about Annalisa, who was diagnosed at 33. The Sun
Articles like this are a really key way we raise awareness of younger women’s experiences of breast cancer and we are always looking for more people to volunteer to tell their story. Annalisa volunteered to be a media volunteer for us, and this article is the result. If anyone on this thread is interested in learning more about being a media volunteer, please email press@breastcancercare.org.uk and the press team will tell you more and sign you up if you’re still keen.
I will pass your idea to our communications team and in the meantime, do think about becoming a media volunteer to help us raise awareness of breast cancer in younger women.
Absolutely shameless bumping up of own thread…
Not got much time to post but I wholeheartedly agree with all that has been said. I’m 30 with 1.5cm IDC, widespread DCIS and some positive nodes. I was a self checker and my tumour grew very quickly and had already started to spread so imagine if I hadn’t been breast aware.
Live the idea of a Dove style ad!
Kerry xx
I e-mailed to become a media volunteer…how quicly do they get in touch?
Thanks,
Rae
Hi Rae,
The Press team received your email yesterday and is just about to ask you to fill out our media volunteering form, so that we have all of your information on file and can match your experience to opportunities in magazines and newspapers. Thanks very much for getting involved.
Thanks Leah - i got it 
Hi Leah, just wondered if any powers that be have done any powers that be magic stuff yet about this?
Still working on it, tors , but hoping to be able to do something of a focus on younger women towards the end of November, to tie in with the 10th anniversary of our Younger Women’s Forums. Will keep you posted.
Brill, thanks Leah. We have over 40 younger ladies on our Facebook group now, all at different stages and from all over the uk. As soon as you look at the drop down list of the profile pics of the members, it makes you realise that you aren’t alone, and you aren’t a freakoid. There are a lot of us on board to move to change things a bit, like getting chemo info sheets aimed at younger women etc, so anything we can do to help, we would love to.
Cosmopolitan featured this story on Friday as part of their support for Breast Cancer Care this month Why we're turning Friday pink
It features Joanne, who was diagnosed at 26.
Thanks for posting that Leah, I’ll follow the link and have a read.
As a young woman who was diagnosed age 30 whilst breastfeeding my then 8 mth old I gree with everything the ladies have said here. I am also a medic, yet until I had BC, even I did not know that there is actually a transiently risk during the pregnancy and breastfeeding period. I remember asking on here if anyone could thing how we could educate the breastfeeding community to make sure they self check, without putting people off breastfeeding. I am very probreastfeeding as well.
If there was anyway of reaching this group of people it would be so worthwhile! So many people get delayed diagnosis due to age. I was very lucky and my GP sent me 2WW immediately, so many breastfeeding women are told it is a blocked duct for weeks before referral. Any delay in diagnosis can mean metastatic disease in a group of patients that are already at risk of aggressive forms of BC.
I need to have a look at the link to the picture.
Thanis for posting Tors xx
Hi manny,
Glad you posted, thank you.
It’s tricky how to advise pregnant ladies or new mums without freaking them out because you feel so vulnerable anyway then, but there must be a way, and the medical profession (gps, midwives, consultants, health visitors,practice nurses etc) CERTAINLY need telling, as they really really do not know. Pregnancy and breastfeeding are thought to lower your lifetime risk of breast cancer, and that’s what sticks in people’s minds, including the medics, but as yo say, it’s the temporarily raised risk around pregnancy that is unknown.
I think we need young women to have breast exams/leaflets given to them at smear test appointments, and it to be broached in pre natal /post natal literature in hospital too.
Hi All,
I was diagnosed in 2010, 4 days before my second child’s 1st birthday. I was still breastfeeding him and was 28 years old. My daughter was 18 months old. It was such a shock to me as there is no family history of breast cancer. All the information given to women says that having children whilst quite young and breastfeeding will keep you safe from breast cancer. Obviously not in my case! I had to quickly stop breastfeeding before my surgery. In fact my surgeon said that I was leaking milk as they cut into me. My surgery was followed by chemo and losing my hair (which didn’t really bother me too much until it started to grow back then my eyelashes and eyebrows fell out!) and then 5/6 weeks of radiotherapy. This was then followed by 12 months of Herceptin which I was surprised to find was administered through a drip every 3 weeks. For some reason I had been under the impression these were tablets. I finished all of my treatments earlier this year. I have been back at work for 15 months and was just starting to feel like a normal person again. I went for a routine breast MRI a couple of weeks ago, got called in for a follow up scan. Had 6 biopsies taken at this scan in the opposite breast to my previous cancer. I today received a telephone call asking me to go in on Wednesday morrning. I am absolutely gutted. My thoughts are that if there was nothing to worry about I would have been told over the phone. Whatever happens I will fight this. I have to for my babies.
Young women need to be told of the dangers. I feel very fortunate that my beast cancer was painful. I did not regularly check myself. All the information I have found says that breast cancer is not usually painful. If mine had not been then I’m not sure I would even be here now, ready to fight again if need be.
I am trying to raise awareness at my place of work where many young women work and am trying to raise money for BCC in the process. If 1 young woman finds a cancer early because of people putting in the effort then it is effort well spent. It can mean extra days, months or years with their families.
Sending love to all affected by cancer xxx
Hi everyone, just bumping up this thread so anyone who has not seen it or commented on it can do so. Thanks xxx
One idea is to add to the current young women’s treatment pathway, such as the chemo sheets specifically drafted with younger ladies in mind, and good practice by medics to include facilitating links between younger women diagnosed within the same, and neighbouring, treatment centres. And maybe BCC merit awards for units who actively do this would be a possibility?
When Kylie Minogue was diagnosed with cancer 7years ago at the age of 36 the world shook. How could someone so young be diagnosed with breast cancer? How dreadful. How awful. And yes it was, but what happened? Where was the public campaign by charities to raise awareness amongst younger women and health care professionals about breast cancer in women under 40? I never saw it, neither did my friends. And here i am seven months on from my cancer diagnosis thinking just what a difference such a campaign wouldve made to my life. it wouldn’t have stopped me from being diagnosed with cancer, but i might have been more alert as to what to have looked for and been diagnosed much much earlier.
It would be brilliant if BCC could launch an awareness campaign to tie in with the 10th anniversary of the younger women’s forum, not just to promote breast awareness in younger women but health care professionals too. I didnt think i was at risk from breast cancer, neither did my GP…how wrong we both were.
I’m going to be completely honest here and say that I would not have gone to the doctors with my lump unless my dad had died of cancer a year ago and my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer in june this year at the age of 36. It took that to make me really have a good rummage around my boobs and notice an area that felt a bit dodgy. When I googled “what does a breast cancer lump feel like?” the results I got made me assume my lump was a breast mouse and absolutely fine… but because of my sister I had the motivation to take myself to the GP.
My GP was fab and sent me to the rapid diagnosis clinic - but even when I go there the consultant struggled to feel the lump in the standard “lie down with your arm raised position” and I felt a bit silly trying to convince her something felt wrong. She did send me for an ultra-sound and obviously turns out that sadly I was right…
I don’t think there is nearly enough awareness among younger girls - I even had a grandmother diagnosed at age 37 and didn’t appreciate what that meant in terms of my risk.
Now I have been diagnosed I am finding a lack of support specific to my age group. My breast care nurse is fine enough but not really in tune with my issues and I am the youngest person in the waiting room by a country mile (I’m 33). I have found the fertility team (am attempting IVF to freeze embryos) to have been the most empathetic and understanding of my concerns (regarding the cancer itself and the associated fertility issues) of all the health professionals I have seen so far. I’m sure this is because they are more used to interacting with my younger age group.