A breast cancer surgeon who diagnosed herself with the disease has explained what she wished she’d known first – and how being a patient herself totally changed her opinion of what people want and need to find out. Appearing on the Naga Munchetty show on Radio 5 Live this week, Dr Liz O’Riorden said one mistake was not checking herself – and how at the age of 40 after never checking before she found a lump.
Host Naga Munchetty said that someone is diagnosed with cancer ‘every two minutes’ and added that it’s estimated that 50 per cent of people will get diagnosed with it. Breast cancer surgeon Dr O’Riorden was diagnosed with the disease and wants to raise awareness of it with new book ‘The Cancer Roadmap’. Naga asked: “When you were a surgeon did you have an understanding of how cancer effects people?”
Dr O’Riorden replied: “No. I saw how it affected them when they came to see me in my clinic and I made them cry – I told them they had cancer. I operated to remove it and I didn’t really see them again. I only saw the people in the very beginning of their diagnosis and a week later. And I was 40 I never checked my breasts. I found a lump.
“It turned out to be a big cancer. That was almost 10 years ago now and I suddenly realised how little I knew about how much cancer effects you physically and mentally, how much misinformation is out there.”
The doctor explained that she discovered what people really want to know and what the NHS is bad at providing. She said: “We’re desperate for control and hope and it was just a world away from what I’d learned in medical school.”
“When you become a patient and the doctor says ‘goodbye see you in five years’ you’re suddenly left thinking ‘well what do I eat, what do I need to do, and is there a magic bullet that can stop if coming back, and it’s very easy to get lost down rabbit holes on the internet wondering ‘what am I not being told’?”
Dr O’Riorden said her cancer has so far returned twice – and now she is facing treatment for the rest of her life: “I had a large left breast cancer in 2015 and I had chemo first followed by a mastectomy, radio therapy and hormone blockers because my cancer was sensitive to oestrogen. I had a recurrence on my chest wall three years later which meant more surgery and radiotherapy and the side effects of that stopped me being able to operate.
“So I couldn’t work as a surgeon and that’s when I started talking and doing videos and blogging and then last year I had another recurrence on my chest wall just a little spot above my mastectomy scar so I’m now on treatment for life to hopefully stop me getting incurable disease.” To listen to the full interview on BBC sounds click here (from about 1.08).
The NHS says the main symptoms of breast cancer are:
- a lump, or swelling in your breast, chest or armpit
- a change in the skin of your breast, such as dimpling (may look like orange peel) or redness (may be harder to see on black or brown skin)
- a change in size or shape of 1 or both breasts
- nipple discharge (if you are not pregnant or breastfeeding), which may have blood in it
- a change in the shape or look of your nipple, such as it turning inwards (inverted nipple) or a rash on it (may look like eczema)
- pain in your breast or armpit which does not go away – breast pain that comes and goes is usually not a symptom of breast cancer
See a GP if:
- you have a lump or swelling in your breast, chest or armpit
- you have any changes in your breasts or nipples that are not normal for you
- you have pain in your breast or armpit that does not go away
For more information click here.