A qualified yoga teacher who has had cancer on multiple occasions first realised she may have the killer disease after touching her necklace.
Annabel Chown, 54, said she was just 31 when she discovered a lump after attending a party in a posh part of London.
After an initial biopsy which suggested the lump was benign, further surgery revealed that she indeed had cancer and required a course of chemotherapy.
Writing in The Times, Annabel recalled that fateful night she found the first signs of cancer. She explained: “I’d found a lump in the early hours of a Sunday morning while getting undressed after a party at a bar in Fitzrovia.
“A couple of the gold sequins on the neckline of my low-cut top were loose. When I touched them, I also felt an area of skin as hard as ice, a few centimetres above my left nipple.”
Terrified it was cancer, Annabel immediately booked a GP appointment before being referred to a consultant oncologist. A needle biopsy then confirmed cancerous cells in her breast and led to her having a “lumpectomy” – a surgical procedure to remove a breast tumour.
Tragically, it wouldn’t be the first time Annabel would experience cancer as she later discovered she was a carrier of the BRCA mutation just like her father. As a result, she put herself on the waiting list to have her breasts removed and underwent the procedure in 2016.
Furthermore, following the birth of her son, she elected to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed because “the last thing I wanted was to risk him being left without a mother”.
Annabel’s breast cancer story comes as the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a stark warning that deaths from the disease could surge around the world.
They predicted that cases in the UK could rise by 21 percent and deaths by a further 42 percent as they published their findings in the Nature Medicine journal.
Speaking about the findings, Dr Isabelle Soerjomataram, who acts as the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s deputy head of their cancer surveillance branch, said: “Continued progress in early diagnosis and improved access to treatment are essential to address the global gap in breast cancer and ensure that the goal of reducing suffering and death from breast cancer is achieved by all countries worldwide.”
Symptoms of breast cancer
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the UK. According to the NHS, symptoms can include:
- A lump or swelling in the breast, chest, or armpit
- A change in the shape or look of the nipple
- Pain the breast or armpit that does not go away
- Nipple discharge
- A change in the size or shape of one or both breasts
- A change in the skin of the breast e.g., dimpling
The NHS added: “It’s important to check your breasts regularly so you know what’s normal for you. This makes it easier to notice any changes in the size, look or feel of your breasts.”