26/10/2026
BREAST CANCER AWARENESS
MY STORY
Not all breast cancers start with a lump. And cancer isn't only an older woman's disease.
I was diagnosed with metastatic hormonal breast cancer in June 2022.
But my story began in October 2021, when one of my breasts became rock hard.
Mammogram: nothing.
Ultrasound: nothing.
I was told it was inflammation.
By Christmas, it hadn't improved.
Instead a cracked rib appeared.
Another mammogram, another ultrasound. This time, I was told it was probably muscle inflammation from working out at the gym.
Then came COVID, weeks of illness, severe pain and increasing weakness.
I saw several doctors. I went to the emergency department. I had X-rays, blood tests and ultrasounds.
The explanations continued. Inflammation. Muscle injury. Post-COVID syndrome.
But I kept getting worse.
By June 2022, I needed support just to walk 30 metres.
A blood test finally revealed severe anaemia. They investigated my bone marrow.
That's when we discovered the cancer that had spread extensively through my bones and into my bone marrow.
All those months, my friend Cancer had been eating its way through my bones while I was waiting for an inflammation to get better.
By the time the cancer was finally discovered, it had spread extensively to my bones and bone marrow.
I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer — a life-threatening, incurable disease.
The time lost was not just time.
It changed the reality I now have to live with, a reality with fear.
I will never know exactly how different things might have been if my cancer had been found earlier.
But I know that I wish the warning signs had been investigated sooner.
That is why I am sharing my story. Because no woman should feel that she has to accept getting worse without answers.
🩷🩷🩷
To my fellow cancer warriors,
Cancer might try to take our lives.
But it cannot take our joy in life, our hope for life, or our will to live.
🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷
