A mum was feeling "washed out" and blamed her symptoms on long Covid until her daughter spotted her leaving the shower. The 49-year-old RAF veteran Ann Gilbert had been suffering "weird" symptoms since contracting Covid-19 last year.
The symptoms were to such an extent that her brother suggested she move home after spending nearly 30 years away from Liverpool.
Ann said: "I've always been somebody who's quite sparkly and quite bubbly, and I felt a little bit, washed out is the best way to describe it. But with having covid and also being menopausal, you're at that time of life - you just think, 'Come on, get a grip, you've got this'."
Only three weeks after moving to a home in Walton, Ann's daughter spotted a lump on her right breast, the Liverpool Echo reports just below her collar bone. At first she dismissed it as "just a little lump" and nothing to worry about but the 24-year-old insisted she "please get it checked out".
She managed to find a "fantastic" surgery after not even being registered for a GP in Liverpool yet where she was examined and then referred to the Royal hospital. Ann "kind of knew what was happening" within minutes of the mammograms and biopsy starting.
She was soon taken into a room where a Macmillan nurse and member of the breast team told her they "suspect this isn't good news". When her full results came back she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer - a fast-growing form.
Ann, who worked for a pharmaceutical company, said: "The biggest thing is shock, because you hear the word 'cancer' and you automatically go into a tailspin. You automatically think a cancer diagnosis means the inevitable end of your life, or that you're going to become extremely unwell, and it's frightening. It is that dread and that feeling of, 'Oh my gosh, I'm 48, how the heck can this be happening to me?'."
Ann found the news hard to process as she has "always been extremely active". She said: "I thought this wasn't going to happen to me. There's no history of breast cancer in the family. I've never smoked. I'm your typical, quite healthy person."
She had to tell her brother which she described as "quite a trauma" however she described breaking the news to her daughter, who has just had a birthday that weekend, as "possibly one of the most difficult things I've ever done". Ann explained to the Liverpool Echo: "All she kept saying was, 'Are you going to die mum?'"
"I'm quite a resilient person, I'd like to think," Ann added. "We're a typical Liverpudlian family, we cherish each other very much, and I didn't want them to be really devastated. So the kind of conversations we had were, you know, 'I've been diagnosed with breast cancer, but it's treatable'."
According to the NHS, roughly one in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and according to Cancer Research UK more than 55,000 people are diagnosed in the UK. Getting an early diagnosis is crucial to survival chances, with 100% of people who are diagnosed in its earliest stages surviving the cancer for a year or more. This falls to two thirds of those diagnosed in the latest stage of breast cancer.
For Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October, Ann shared her story and advised: "You should know your own body. If you're in the shower, check your armpits, have a good feel. If anything doesn't feel right, or you're even slightly concerned, just get some professional advice on it."
Ann is started attending a 20 week chemotherapy course just days after her 49th birthday in August. Surgery will then follow along with a course of radiotherapy.
"This wasn't really how I planned on my last year in my 40s being" Ann said, "I had no control."
"Everything was, 'You've got to go here, you've got to do this, you've got to do that, we're making these appointments, then you'll have this done', so the first thing I did was I went and got my hair cut short. It was the one thing I could hold onto as my own, you know, 'new hair, new me'. If I'm going to lose my hair, it won't look as noticeable if it's gone short. It's just that element of control."
Ann is relieved to be receiving treatment in Clatterbridge's "bright" and "pleasant" facility in the Knowledge Quarter, where she is able to look out at both cathedrals at "the most glorious view of our wonderful city".
She added: ""I am a very proud Liverpudlian, so just to be able to sit there, I felt like I was home. I felt like someone sent me home because they knew this was happening. I'm quite a spiritual person anyway, but for me to be here with my family around me, with Clatterbridge as my treatment centre, I couldn't have asked for better timing."
She feels tired, struggled to sleep and "food doesn't taste as good" due to the chemotherapy but she is remaining positive by thinking about the future.
She said: "My daughter started a masters degree this week, so we've got a year before another big graduation. I've got a great niece on the way in November - I'm really excited about meeting this little one.
"I'm back in my home city for the first time in nearly 30 years. I've got lots of catching up to do, but I'm going to make a difference with my future. It's really changed me fundamentally because you only get one shot, and if you're not happy in any aspect of your life, do something about it."
