Breast Cancer Awareness Month - October 2025

October 30, 2025

Spoiler alert, I’m fine now.

It was a Thursday. A normal day. As my arm brushed over my breast as I was getting dressed, something felt weird. There was a lump, and it was not small.

Hmm.

OK. Don’t panic. It’s probably nothing.

Don’t. Panic.

I went to work and made a plan. I’d give it 24 hours, and if it was still there, I’d call the GP.

Don’t. Panic.

24 hours later, it was definitely still there, and it was not any smaller. I called the GP surgery who, after explaining the situation, booked me an appointment for that afternoon.

The GP made that face. The face that was unable to give me the reassurance that it was nothing.

Ten days later I was at the hospital having a biopsy. Afterwards, I went to watch a murder trial at the Old Bailey to take my mind off what just happened and what might happen, but that’s a story for another day.

Don’t. Panic.

A few days after that – three weeks to the day after I had found the lump – I was given the news that I had triple negative breast cancer. It was the ‘serious kind’. The ‘let’s not mess around kind’. The ‘let’s get you in a chemo chair next week kind’.

Don’t Google it. Don’t Google it. Don’t Google it. Of course I Googled it. I shouldn’t have Googled it.

Don’t. Panic.

The next week was a chaotic mess of scans, blood tests, appointments, new people with impressive titles, medical terminology, another biopsy, my tears and tears from other people, and a lot of people looking at and poking my breasts.

The next few months were an equally chaotic mess of fertility preservation, clinical trials, immunotherapy, chemotherapy (which worked and then didn’t work), cold caps, more blood tests than you could possibly imagine, self-administered injections, side effects whack-a-mole, more paperwork than any business, tears, a mastectomy, the physical and mental aftermath of major surgery and extensive chemotherapy, and many moments simply thinking WTF.

I was given the all clear six months after my diagnosis – this means that there was no cancer present in the tissue they removed during the mastectomy, and I wouldn’t need any more treatment. Ten months after that, I had the second breast removed. And here’s why…

The surgeon who told me the news said it was ‘shitty bad luck’. There was nothing I had done to cause this. Because of my mother and aunt experiencing breast cancer, I had had genetic counselling five years previously, but my risk was not determined high enough to warrant genetic testing. The plan was to be put into the mammogram program from the age of 35. As my diagnosis was at the age of 33, that never happened, and after genetic testing on diagnosis, it turned out I didn’t have any of the breast cancer genes anyway. This means that the cancer was not inherited, so it was literally shitty bad luck, indeed.

I was informed that I had a 26% chance of another cancer developing. This information allowed me to make an informed choice about the surgery. You wouldn’t get on a plane if someone told you there was a 26% chance of it crashing. So both boobs had to go, as well as the nipples, the lymph nodes and anything else they could get their hands on. I wanted it all gone to reduce the chances of recurrence by as much as possible.

After that, I was done. I can’t say it didn’t have a lasting impact on my life; it definitely did and continues to do so. But there was no more cancer. Just life.

‍So why am I telling you this?

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Breast Cancer Awareness month. Both my mother and aunt also experienced breast cancer. Because of them, I was aware of the signs and symptoms and able to recognise these when I experienced them. Because of me, one of my best friends was aware of these signs and was able to act quickly when she experienced them.

So my message is this: know the signs and symptoms so you are able to recognise them. Act on them immediately if you experience any of them. The earlier you catch breast cancer, the better the outcome. Breast cancer can happen when you’re young: I was only 33. Around 5,000 women under the age of 45 are diagnosed each year. Breast cancer can happen to men too. Around 500 men are diagnosed each year.

Here are some of the signs to look out for:

A lump or swelling in the breast, upper chest or armpit. You might feel the lump, but not see it.
Changes in the size or shape of the breast
A change in skin texture i.e. puckering or dimpling of the skin
A change in the colour of the breast - the breast may look red or inflamed
Rash, crusting or changes to the nipple
Any unusual discharge from either nipple

If you experience any of these symptoms, it is important to seek medical attention. And that is the point of Breast Cancer Awareness Month: to make everyone aware – to alert them to the who, how, where and why. To help save your life.

Awareness also encompasses screening. If you have been invited to have a mammogram, please go. My mum’s cancer was found this way – it was so small that it was undetectable through self-examination. Early detection via a routine mammogram is literally a life-saver – over 20,000 breast cancers detected in 2021 were by mammogram. So next time you get a reminder, please don’t ignore it and don’t put it off. It is a vital piece of awareness.

Don’t put it off. The type I had, triple negative, is particularly aggressive, and much less common than hormone-driven breast cancers. It tends to affect younger women, and women of colour. You need to move quickly. The tumour I found grew 6mm from the time it was first biopsied to when I started treatment three weeks later. See? Quickly. Triple negative is not fuelled by any hormones, so I was treated with immediate and aggressive chemotherapy, and then surgery.

So I repeat – seeking medical attention as early as possible can change the outcome of the disease and your survival. Breast cancer that is caught early is much more treatable – 86% of women who are diagnosed survive beyond 5 years. Survival rates have doubled in the past 50 years precisely because of early intervention strategies such as screening and awareness.

I survived because I was aware of the symptoms, and I got checked out. I know you’re busy, and life happens; things get in the way, you forget. But please don’t put it off. I know it’s scary, but life without you is even scarier.

By Amy Walkers

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For more information, follow the link below

https://breastcancernow.org/about-us/why-we-do-it/breast-cancer-facts-and-statistics

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