A Leeds woman was diagnosed with a "one in a million" cancer after finding a lump in her right breast while she was on holiday.
Perri Rowe made the worrying discovery in August 2020 and rushed to book a doctor's appointment as soon as she returned to the UK. Aged 21 at the time, she was referred to a breast clinic and doctors were initially convinced the lump was non-cancerous due to its size.
As it was half a centimetre bigger than what is considered to be a normal lump, she was sent for further testing. A few weeks later, just before her 22nd birthday, Perri received the devastating news that she had rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer that forms in soft tissue.
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Perri, now 24, said: “It was such a shock, I’d been completely in the dark of just how serious the lump could be. It was even more of a shock to find out I had a type of cancer that I’d never even heard of.”
Just one in a million people are diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma in the breast. Due to the aggressive nature of the cancer, Perri was put on intensive chemotherapy which she said was a “complete shock” to her body.
She said: “Because of how aggressive the cancer is, I was put on intensive chemo which I found really tough. My body didn’t know how to react; it was very draining and I lost my hair.”
Perri, a product specialist for John Lewis, said she has had to “come to terms” with her new body after undergoing a mastectomy in December 2020. She now hopes to encourage other cancer patients to “celebrate their body”.
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Perri said: “I have a 30cm scar across my chest and, while I’m due to have reconstruction surgery this summer, I have had to come to terms with how my body has changed during my treatment, and I have learned to love my body as it is now. Every scar defines the kind of journey you’ve been on, and you should be proud of that.”
In October 2020, Perri was on her second cycle of chemotherapy when she was admitted to hospital with sepsis, which she said was “touch and go” for a while. Spending several weeks in hospital fighting the infection, Perri said it changed her mindset as she recovered.
“I think that having sepsis really encouraged me to just completely go with the mastectomy and say, ‘right, you know what, I’ve already been through this, it can’t really get much worse’,” she said. “If the mastectomy was going to save my life, then I needed to go for it.”
During her treatment, Perri spent a lot of time on the Teenage Cancer Trust unit which she said helped to keep her from feeling isolated as she went through treatment during Covid lockdown restrictions. In December 2020 when she was 22, Perri had surgery to have her right breast removed in a mastectomy.
Perri, who lives with her boyfriend, Alex, 29, a network manager for a sports broadcasting company, said: “A lot of people associate having cancer with losing weight but for a lot of people it’s not the case. For me, I gained weight because of all the different medications I was on.
“The mastectomy really affected me for a long time because I didn’t feel like me. I have a 30cm scar across my chest and I have to wear a prosthetic.”
Due to Perri’s cancer being at high risk of returning within the first two years, she was not eligible for a breast reconstruction during her mastectomy. Receiving the all-clear in March 2021, Perri is now due to have her reconstruction surgery this summer and has said the years she has spent waiting for the operation have given her time to come to terms with her new body.
She said: “My new body has not bothered me so much over the past year or two because I’m in such a good place and I’ve learned to deal with it and to love my body for who I am now. It’s part of me, your scars on your body define the kind of the journey you’ve gone through, and I think we’re very much in charge of creating our own narrative.
“For me, learning to accept my body and use it to my advantage rather than kind of see it as a negative and a hindrance to me, was the first step in terms of being able to move on."
She added: "I’m very much looking forward to the reconstruction. I knew it was going to happen at some stage, but I’m not at that point where I’m absolutely desperate for the surgery. You’ve just got to realise that you shouldn’t compare yourself to anyone else.”
Perri is sharing her experience to highlight the many ways that treatment can impact young people, as part of Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Awareness Month. To find out more, visit the website here.
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