‘The big shock is that I’m young’
There is no age limit on health. Brianna McIlraith reports.
When Jenna Bone found a lump the size of a chickpea near her armpit she just thought it was an ingrown hair.
But fast forward three months, the 26-year-old is facing a gruelling six rounds of chemotherapy and radiation to have a cancerfree life, all while documenting it for the world to see through her Facebook page Jenna Vs The Evil Chickpea. The page explores the ups and downs of going through cancer at a young age with humour and positivity, and has nicknamed the cancerous tumour the Evil Chickpea.
She’s also using the story to encourage other people her age to regularly check their bodies.
‘‘If I’m 26 and I can get it, it can happen to literally anyone. If only one other person checks their balls or checks their tits or checks that weird mole that they’ve got because of what they’ve seen on my page then it’s worth it,’’ she said.
In New Zealand, 3300 women and 25 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, while 400 (6 per cent) of those women are under the age of 44. More than 600 men and women die each year from it.
Mammograms are not recommended as a regular screening tool for women under 40 unless there is an inherited risk.
The Mount Albert Grammar School science teacher, who was brought up in Wellington, has been fighting an aggressive form of grade three breast cancer, meaning the cells were extremely abnormal and fast growing, since the end of July.
‘‘I was incredibly lucky. I felt a lump, but I wasn’t even doing a breast examination. I was washing under my arms and the lump just happened to be right on the cusp of breast tissue and armpit area,’’ she said.
She went to her GP three days later and was referred to the St Marks Breast Centre for a specialist appointment. A biopsy was done on July 29 to determine the seriousness. ‘‘I still didn’t think anything was wrong at that point,’’ she said.
But it was serious. And alone in the appointment room she got life-changing news.
‘‘The first thing I think I said was ‘well I’m 26, you can’t be right’. The big shock is that I’m young. Everything I thought I had planned for the six months, a year, two years, 10 years even, sort of started to slither away so I needed a plan. I needed something to hold on to,’’ she said.
After creating a plan to go through surgery and chemotherapy with the doctor, she had to break the news to her her parents Kirstin and Maurice, and siblings, Maggie, 25, Lachlan, 23, and 21-year-old Ella.
‘‘It was really funny actually because the whole family thought that I was going to announce I was pregnant,’’ she said, but they quickly went quiet when she broke the news.
Jenna’s oma, or grandmother, died of breast cancer when she was 51 after being diagnosed when she was 49.
Eight days after she was diagnosed she received a partial mastectomy and the cancer hadn’t spread. And although she didn’t need to have a full mastectomy, where the whole breast is
A lump, lumpiness or thickening of the breast.
Changes in the skin of a breast, such as puckering, dimpling or a rash.
Persistent or unusual breast pain.
A change in the shape or size of a breast.
Discharge from a nipple, a nipple rash or a change in its shape.
removed, it was something she had to seriously consider and said it could be likely in the future if the cancer returned.
To be safe she is doing four months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment ‘‘The big things for me was obviously at 26 I am still quite young and chemo affects your fertility,’’ she said.
So she went through hormone therapy to freeze her eggs with 27 of them waiting for her when she is ready to have children.
‘‘But even with chemo I’ve been so so lucky in terms of side effects,’’ she said.
‘‘I have been fine, so so embarrassingly fine.’’
She got bad acne, was exhausted, her immunity dropped so low her wisdom tooth became infected and she began losing her hair after the second round, but it hasn’t stopped her from staying overwhelmingly positive with her diagnosis.
‘‘I know it sounds silly because my body went and betrayed me by getting cancer in the first place, but I have quite an innate sense of faith it’s all going to be OK.’’