Stories

I found a malignant, triple negative tumour in my breast in 2012, at age 49, a few weeks after receiving an all clear letter from the mammography program I’d been examined by yearly since surgery for a large adenoma in 1999. I’d been told once years before by my GP that my breasts were dense…

In 2017, at age 50, I received a letter inviting me to go for my first mammogram. My family doctor received a copy of the results and informed me that everything was fine. Two years later, in 2019, I received my second letter and went for a mammogram in September. The next day, my breasts…

I watched my mum suffer through cancer of the maxillary sinus and eventually die, at 52 from a resulting brain tumour. This introduced me at an early age to the horrors of cancer, the treatments involved and the toll it took, not only on my mum but the whole family. This is why I have…

For my entire adult life, I was aware that my breasts were very ‘lumpy’. I was not large chested, and I could feel many bumps and rope like tethers – especially on the right side. The left side was lumpy too, but those lumps felt easier to ‘memorize’. I breastfed on my right side and…

I felt what I thought might be a lump in my breast about three years ago. I brought this up to my family physician, and he felt it as well, and we booked a mammogram. It came back clear, but saying I had dense breasts…ok……so it’s clear. A year later, another mammogram, again, it’s clear.…

I was originally told I had dense breasts about 8 years ago (2010). After having my screening mammogram, the tech asked me to wait while the radiologist checked the film. “Nothing to worry about, you just have dense breasts”, she assured me. I was 53. Come February 2017 I discovered a lump in my left…

I had been having annual mammograms since I was in my 30’s because of the number of women on both sides of my family who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Year after year, the mammograms came back clear and I was assured that I was cancer free. In September 2013, I felt a small…

I met a friend at a local farm market on September 4th, 2013. She was out socially for the first-time post-mastectomy. The next morning, I was in the shower and remembered how diligent I used to be with self-examination, but since menopause I had been relying on mammograms every two years. As I ran my…

I would very much like to stress the importance of women being proactive with their health, especially when it comes to their breasts. Mammograms are important, but they don’t catch everything, especially if you have dense breasts. I was diagnosed at age 52 with stage 3A DCIS breast cancer. I had dense breasts and was…