Educating young people has been my life since I qualified as a teacher in 1980. To educate young girls about breast cancer is my goal. If every young girl knew the correct way to detect any changes in her breast, it would be her best protection against breast cancer.
Modern screening methods are good but not perfect and a high percentage of breast cancers are discovered by the patient themselves. I have been educating 17 and 18 year old girls about breast cancer for the last four years in the school where I work, and what I found out from them was quite alarming.
They have so many misconceptions and generally think that all they need to know is to check for lumps occasionally – which, I have to add, is all I knew up until my own diagnosis.
There are many changes in the breast which could indicate something serious, but the big clue is if they don’t change with monthly menstruation cycles or don’t clear up, then they need to be investigated.
Men have breast tissue and can get breast cancer – a fact which shocks most of the young girls. There have even been cases of men having IBC! Awareness is protection – if I myself had known the facts and symptoms of IBC I would not have let myself be brushed off with the old ‘it’s your age’ or ‘it’s nothing to worry about, you don’t have a lump’ excuses.
I hear so many cases with IBC being misdiagnosed. It is my primary goal to make the healthcare community wake up to the fact that ALL general practitioners and practice nurses need to be fully aware and trained to be familiar with all of the symptoms of this awful disease.
On a brighter note I have to say that with modern advances in treatment, I am seeing many more people survive Inflammatory Breast Cancer now than I did when first diagnosed in 2000. In just eight short years we have come so far, and I’m thankful I’m still here to see it.
Do I feel bitter or sorry I had breast cancer? No – I am grateful for the opportunities it has laid in my path. Of course I wish I’d never been diagnosed, but I’m certainly not going to let it stop me doing anything I want to!
Laney Cummings |
