Five years ago, on the 5th March 2020, I received news that would change my life – an aggressive grade 3 breast cancer diagnosis. As the world entered lockdown, I faced surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. But rather than letting cancer define me, I used it as a catalyst for extraordinary change.

In April 2023 as I was showering whilst working abroad for work I felt a small hard lump at the front of my right breast, convinced it was maybe an ingrown hair I continued my day.

Naively, I wasn't checking my breasts and only found the lump as a friend found a lump (luckily hers was a cyst) but unfortunately, mine wasn't. I was diagnosed with Stage 2A Breast Cancer, ER+ PR+ Her-2 in September 2023. 

In April 2017, just three weeks before my 35th birthday, and I was hit with a diagnosis that changed everything. Stage four, incurable breast cancer, and it had already spread to my liver. 

I found a lump in my breast near the end of 2021. At the time, I didn’t think much of it—I assumed it was a benign cyst but decided to get it checked to put my mind at rest. My GP acted quickly, referring me to the breast care team.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 at the age of 35, and in a matter of minutes, my entire world was turned upside down. One moment I was going about my life, and the next I was faced with the terrifying reality of needing a mastectomy and undergoing six intense sessions of chemotherapy.

Cancer doesn’t discriminate against anyone. Receiving a breast cancer diagnosis as a young, Black, pregnant woman with no family history of the disease was shocking and completely devastating for me and my husband.

At the start of 2023, I noticed my left breast had changed shape. Although I was aware of it, I put it down to weight loss and aging, but by July, while on holiday, I could no longer ignore it - it was retracting up my chest.

A breast cancer diagnosis at 37 years old took so much from me. Diagnosed with aggressive triple-negative breast cancer due to carrying the BRCA1 gene mutation, I underwent gruelling chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, and a double mastectomy with reconstruction using my own tummy tissue.