A woman claims she may not have had to undergo life-changing surgery if doctors had not dismissed her as being 'too young to have cancer.'
Alicia Mcgoogan was 23 when she started feeling pain in her and discomfort in her right breast in December 2021. At first, she put it down to it being her time of the month.
But then the recruiter, from Manchester, noticed her nipple had started leaking a yellow-sticky discharge. She booked in with her GP and was transferred to a breast clinic at Burnley General Teaching Hospital.
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A blockage in her milk duct was identified so she had a microdochectomy to remove the duct in January 2022, and discovered it was a benign tumour.
After the procedure, Alicia expected to get the all-clear. But afterwards, she claims she mentioned to a nurse that she'd felt a lump on her breast - but she claims they didn't examine it and said it was scar tissue from the surgery.
As the lump got bigger, Alicia claims she pushed for further scans, and after a mammogram and biopsy, was eventually diagnosed with stage two breast cancer on May 18th last year.
The cancer had spread from her nipple to her surrounding breast tissue and chest wall, so she needed to undergo a full mastectomy of her right breast.
She then had IVF treatment followed by six cycles of chemotherapy before she started proton beam therapy this month. After her recovery, she will have surgery to reconstruct her breast.
Despite enduring such a "whirlwind" experience, Alicia who's now 24, said that staying positive has been paramount and she's looking forward to eventually returning to normal life.
She is now keen to raise awareness of the importance of anyone with breast cancer symptoms not to allow them to be 'brushed under the carpet' if they're dismissed by doctors simply because of their age.
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust apologised that Alicia feels she did not get the support she needed and said that when she gets in touch directly they will investigate it.
"The doctors said plenty of times that I was probably too young to have breast cancer. They kind of said 'don't worry, you're very young, it's highly highly unlikely for it to be breast cancer,'" she said.
"It's only when I came in and said that I wanted another scan [mammogram] and they agreed that's when the ball started rolling in terms of finding out it was cancer.
"The main thing I say when speaking to people my age is that I felt that they thought it wouldn't be cancer because of my age, because it's not normal for a 23-year-old to have breast cancer, as it usually occurs in middle age and older women.
"I feel like if the cancer was caught earlier on, then the chances of me having a mastectomy would have been reduced. It may have been where I would have had a lumpectomy instead, where they take the tumour out and I get to keep my breast."
Alicia had a full mastectomy of her right breast on May 30th and exactly a fortnight later had IVF treatment and zoladex injections. She had six cycles of chemotherapy in August and started proton beam therapy this month. She'll eventually have surgery to reconstruct her breast using skin, muscle and fatty tissue from elsewhere in her body, perhaps her thigh.
Alicia said: "I'm a size 34C, so it filled quite a large area of my breast. It was quite big but it grew very quickly from the end of December when I started to feel it to when I got my mastectomy.
"It got over 8mm, it had gone from the right side of my right breast, down and underneath it, which is why they had to do a full mastectomy because they couldn't save any part of the breast.
"It's been a bit of a whirlwind to be honest. I've left my job on sick leave, so I've not been working to focus on treatment, my social life has been impacted massively. I just want to raise awareness of if women have any symptoms of breast cancer, not to just brush it under the carpet if they're turned away from the doctor because of their age.
"Just keep pressing on and getting to the bottom of things and keep asking for scans and not to ignore the symptoms if they know it's not right.
"I think if a 45-year-old or 50-year-old woman came into the breast clinic with the same symptoms that I had, they would have been given a mammogram straight away and they didn't with me, they did every other scan before they did a mammogram, because of my age."
A spokesperson for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We know every cancer diagnosis is devastating for patients and their families and everyone at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust is working each and every day to treat cancer as quickly as possible and save lives. We are sorry Alicia feels she did not get the support she needed. We would encourage her to contact us directly so we can talk to her about her concerns and look into her experience.
"If anyone is worried about any symptoms they think could be cancer, speak to a GP urgently. It's important to remind people also that you can help to reduce your risk of cancer through maintaining a healthy lifestyle, avoiding exposure to known cancer-causing substances and taking, when offered, medicines or vaccines that can prevent cancer from developing."
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