TELL US ABOUT YOUR BREAST CANCER STORY.
You could always e-mail us your story at info@densebreastscanada.ca. Photos are welcome. Thank you for sharing your story and helping to inform other women.
Women's Stories
Lorraine
My name is Lorraine and I am from beautiful British Columbia, Canada. I became a Canadian citizen in 1998, but was born in South Africa. I had my first ‘lump’ in my left breast, two years after the birth of my first child, while still living in South Africa way back in 1981. I remember…
Joanne
For years, I was told I had cystic breasts, just normal lumpy breasts. I cut back on coffee, tea and chocolate. I was also told there is no such thing as a painful tumour. Cancer tumours don’t hurt right? Wrong. A few years prior to my Stage 4 de novo diagnosis, my GP, the mammography…
Cathy
Cathy’s breast density story is different from most. She lived in Toronto for a few years, and her family doctor there sent her to a specialist in 1983 because she had already had one benign breast tumor removed at age 23. She was told she had polycystic fibrous breasts that were denser than normal, and…
Nancy
It is with great sadness that we write about Nancy’s death on November 15, 2018. Nancy died from complications related to bone marrow cancer that was a result of her aggressive chemotherapy 13 years ago. She will continue to inspire us. Nancy M. Cappello, Ph.D. is founder of Are You Dense, and Are You Dense Advocacy…
Feather
I’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer twice. The last time was ten years ago. The first time was at the age of 23. I underwent a left radical mastectomy for a highly aggressive grade three breast cancer. I remained cancer free until 12 years later. At that point, I had two beautiful daughters. I had…
Anna
I was getting annual mammograms for 20 years since my mom was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 1995. I’ve had very lumpy breasts for as long as I can remember and doctors kept telling me this was normal and to cut down on my caffeine to alleviate tenderness. My breasts at the time…
Nancy
My gosh, so happy for this group. I too have dense breasts. At my first mammogram, at the age 40, I was told, “you have dense breasts.” Not really getting any more information on that, I went for regular annual mammograms. Sixteen years later, which was a year ago, I had some unusual symptoms: inverted…
Sue
I had nipple discharge for as long as I could remember. When I was pregnant (2000), I noticed that it was a brown discharge from my left breast. The doctor assured me that it was the hormones of being pregnant so when I again noticed the discharge from that same breast, again we assumed it…
Whitney
My story is a little different as I have known for years I’ve had dense breasts – heterogeneously dense, to be precise. This is because my GP told me years ago that my breast tissue made it more difficult to detect cancer. I assumed all doctors discussed this with their patients. Given my mother’s history…