Sarah was 34 years old when she found it — a small, firm lump just above her left breast, roughly the size of a pea. She had been doing her regular self-examination in the shower, something she had started after a close friend’s diagnosis the year before. “It was not painful at all,” she recalls. “That is what made me second-guess myself. I kept thinking: surely if it was something serious, it would hurt.”
She waited a week. The lump did not change. On a Tuesday morning, she called her GP surgery.
Referred under the two-week wait
Her GP saw her the same afternoon and referred her under the NHS two-week wait pathway to the local breast clinic. “I thought she was being over-cautious,” Sarah says. “I was 34. I thought breast cancer was something that happened to older women.” Eight days later, she was sitting in the clinic waiting room.
The triple assessment — a physical examination, ultrasound, and a core biopsy — took around two hours. Results arrived within a week. “They called the next day. The team were brilliant throughout — honest, calm, and they explained everything.”
Stage I: the best-case scenario
The biopsy confirmed a grade 2 invasive ductal carcinoma, hormone-receptor positive, Stage I. “When the consultant said ‘Stage I’, she could see my face change. She said: ‘This is the very best scenario. We caught it early, and the treatment is very effective.’ I cried with relief.”
Sarah had a lumpectomy followed by a course of radiotherapy, and began a five-year course of tamoxifen. She is now three years post-diagnosis and working full-time. She has completed two fundraising walks for breast cancer awareness.
What Sarah wants every woman to know
- Breast cancer in early stages often does not hurt — do not wait for pain before acting
- Most lumps are benign, but all new unexplained lumps should be checked promptly
- The NHS two-week wait pathway means you can be seen by a specialist within two weeks of referral
- Stage I breast cancer has a five-year survival rate of over 98% — finding it early makes all the difference
- Regular breast self-examination takes two minutes and could save your life