BECKY FOUND ABOUT HER LITTLE KNOWN CANCER SYMPTOMS THOUGH FACEBOOK
A 38-year-old woman’s life was saved after a chance glance at Facebook helped her spot one of the rare symptoms of breast cancer .
Becky Hamer was browsing the site when she came across an item about a little known sign of breast tumours.
The post, by Australian woman Kylie Armstrong, showed dimpling in the tissue of her breast.
It had gone viral and been seen by hundreds of thousands of women across the world, the Huddersfield Examiner reports .
For Becky, it proved vital because just a few weeks later she noticed similar dimpling on her own breast.
And just three weeks later she received a cancer diagnosis.
Becky, 38, from Holmfirth, Yorkshire, is now one of 10 British women who are set to meet Kylie when she visits London on Saturday.
“It will be great to meet her and say thank you in person,” said Becky.
“We’ve got our own Facebook group and there’s women from the USA, Canada and Australia who have all got diagnosed thanks to her post.
“Had I not seen that I wouldn’t have done anything, so she pretty much saved my life.
“It sounds a bold statement – I might have had other symptoms further down the line but that might have been too late.”
Becky said more people needed to be aware that lumps aren’t the only symptom of breast cancer.
“I read the post because I didn’t know that (dimpling) was a sign of breast cancer,” said Becky, who saw the post last February.
“We’re always told to look out for lumps but the other signs aren’t well publicised.
“Even when I saw my GP, they didn’t think there was anything untoward but thankfully they booked me in for checks anyway.”
Two weeks later Becky, a probation officer, had two scans and a biopsy done at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary – and a week later the results showed she did have cancer.
She has been treated and is in remission but will have take preventative drugs for at least five years.
“It all happened pretty fast,” she said. “But the service has been fantastic and I’ve never been made to feel like a hypocondriac by any of the doctors.
“Thankfully they found it early so I’m lucky that I’ve not had to have a mastectomy.
“But it just goes to show that it’s important for younger women to know the signs too.
“The information tends to be targeted at older women and they’re the ones that get tested automatically.
“But there’s so many young women that this Facebook post of Kylie’s has helped.
“In our Facebook group about half are under 40.”
In her original Facebook plea, Kylie urged all women to taken notice.
She wrote: “Please take a good look at this photo. These three very, very subtle DIMPLES on the bottom of this breast are a sign of BREAST CANCER! This is what MY BREAST CANCER looks like. I felt no lump. The GP felt no lump.”
[“source-ndtv”]
