A woman has shared the unusual warning sign she spotted that was ignored by doctors before a devastating breast cancer diagnosis. Sam Mercer, 51, was recently married when she noticed she was becoming more tired than usual. Doctors put it down to fluctuating hormone levels due to perimenopause. Yet, a peculiar transformation of her left breast soon raised her concerns.
Sharing her ordeal with Surrey Live, she explained: "It wasn't the sort of pea-sized lump that most had talked about so I put it down to hormone changes and hoped it would settle. "Mine was more, I don't know how to put it, it felt like a piece of gristle? Not something you ever really read about.
"When I was talking to the doctors they kept saying it is hormonal and don't worry about it but of course it was getting bigger and bigger and it was getting long. It was like a little sausage, if I can put it any better, that is exactly what it was like.
"So what I always say to people is, you are not specifically looking for a pea-sized lump, it is any change in your breast or chest that doesn't feel normal, anything that you can feel under the palm of your hand.". Hailing from Essex but now calling Northern Ireland home, Sam's subsequent ultrasound and biopsy confirmed her fears and she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. Struck by the devastating revelation, she confessed: "You never think it will be you.".
Her final diagnosis was Grade 3 HER2-positive breast cancer, which had metastasised to her lymph nodes and clavicle area. Her oncologist warned her that the treatment would be "hardcore", but she confessed that nothing could have braced her for the harsh reality of chemotherapy, which she described as "brutal on every level".
