‘THEY TOLD ME I WAS TOO YOUNG FOR BREAST CANCER’
A WOMAN who was diagnosed with breast cancer at 21 claims she was deterred from getting herself checked out because medics said she was “too young” to get the disease.
Annmarie Bowen, a hairdresser from Abertysswg in Caerphilly, said she only managed to get the vital ultrasound scan after complaining.
The 28-year-old said she found a lump in her breast in January 2011 and got a doctor’s appointment the next day.
“They said there was nothing much to worry but they’d send me to get checked out anyway just in case,” she said.
“The breast clinic told me that I was too young for anything to be wrong with me and I was constantly put at the bottom of the waiting list until I complained.
“Something in the back of my mind was telling me you need to have a scan or be seen a little bit further. So I pushed for that and was sent for an ultrasound the next day and they also did numerous tests; biopsies, mammograms, everything. Then the week later I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 21.”
Annmarie was immediately treated at the Macmillan Chemotherapy Unit at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr.
She said: “Being so young there didn’t seem to be much knowledge about my cancer in younger people so the nurses sat with me through every treatment and answered all my questions that I had during every session.
“The information they gave me helped me get through my diagnosis, to stay strong and to stay positive. The days I felt like giving up they were there to lend a helping hand to get me back on the right track to recovery.”
After her diagnosis, Annmarie was given the devastating news that due to the intensity of the cancer treatment, she would be unlikely to have children. But in 2016 she received some surprising news.
“In March I found out I was pregnant and it was an amazing feeling but a very scary one as well,” she said.
“I was just thinking that something was going to go wrong all the way through the pregnancy.
“They kept a close eye on me to make sure everything was fine and thankfully then she came.
“She’s amazing and the best thing that could have happened to me, and the best thing that could have come out of all of this.”
Annmarie, who is now expecting her second child, wants to encourage anyone experiencing breast cancer symptoms to get checked out.
“I would say to anybody that if you feel any different in your body or if you feel any lumps or anything any changes, then go to your GP and don’t be afraid as it could save your life.
“It is probably nothing but if there is that chance that there is something, early detection helps prevent anything bad happening.
“The treatment is hard but it is better than losing your life.”
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women in the UK, with more than 2,300 women being diagnosed in Wales each year.