Wendy Rolls found the lump herself.
"I had the mammogram last year in June. Then I felt a lump in November," Mrs Rolls, 63, said.
"I went to the doctor and he sent me for an ultrasound. It came back as inconclusive. They said it didn't present like a cancer, but they'd look again in three months."
She then had a core biopsy done, which came back positive.
"I was a bit taken aback. There hadn't been anyone in the family with breast cancer," she said.
October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
As the month comes to an end, Mrs Rolls urged women to "not put their head in the sand".
"You just don't know what can be there," she said.
More than 850 women in Hunter New England are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and about 160 will die.
Mrs Rolls was diagnosed in April, but didn't have much time to think.
"I was told on the Tuesday and the surgery was on the Friday," said Mrs Rolls, of Balmoral in south-west Lake Macquarie.
"That was probably good because I wasn't sitting around thinking about it too much."
Her family was supportive.
"One asked how it happened. And that's the thing we don't know - is it environmental, genetics? That's one thing we need more research on," she said.
Health data shows breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, with age and being female the biggest risk factors - not family history.
Mrs Rolls is a participant in the CAMBRIA-2 clinical trial, run by the Newcastle-based Breast Cancer Trials.
It aims to determine if a new endocrine therapy, a selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD), is better at stopping cancer from returning than standard hormone treatments.
Many patients with the subtype of breast cancer that affected Mrs Rolls - ER-positive, HER2-negative - are cured of the disease with surgery and combinations of radiation, chemotherapy and hormone treatment.
However, a significant number will experience a recurrence. This may be due to resistance to endocrine therapy or dormant tumour cells may grow.
"We need endocrine treatments that are more effective and safe - and for patients to continue to take them for as long as required - to further improve the cure rate," a Breast Cancer Trials statement said.
Mrs Rolls had radiation treatment, but not chemotherapy.
"That was a relief. I wasn't looking forward to it. If I didn't have to have it, I didn't want to have it," she said.
"I had a friend who had breast cancer 10 years ago and they just threw everything at her."
Researchers have been investigating if a "less is more" approach will give patients equally good or better outcomes.
Reducing the amount and intensity of treatment that patients receive had the potential to reduce the side effects of treatment, which were often long lasting.
Long-term side effects of breast cancer treatment include heart problems, chronic pain, lymphoedema, osteoporosis and cognitive dysfunction.
During October, Hunter New England Health urged women to take up free breast cancer screening.
BreastScreen NSW encouraged women to "be a friend, tell a friend" about the importance of having regular mammograms.
For women aged 50 to 74, a breast screen every two years is considered the best way to detect breast cancer early.
