‘You have the densest breasts I have ever seen!’. That’s what the sonographer told me during a private ultrasound in 2018. I was 50 years old at the time, and hearing this changed everything. I’d been having annual mammograms since I was 41 because of my family history of breast cancer.
![[Clare Cowhig: Doctors said I had the 'densest breasts' they had ever seen, then I was diagnosed with cancer]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233459914-b72e-e1734362544867.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Each year, I’d go, get the all-clear and breathe a sigh of relief. I trusted the system completely. I never questioned whether there might be more to know. Then one day when I was 50, I was in the shower and I felt an unusual area of thickening breast tissue, which I wanted to get checked.
![[Clare Cowhig: Doctors said I had the 'densest breasts' they had ever seen, then I was diagnosed with cancer]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233459910-7aa9-e1734362566946.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
The doctor said they could fast-track an appointment for two weeks’ time, but I didn’t want to wait as my mum had recently gone through breast cancer treatment for a second time. I booked a private ultrasound instead. That’s when the sonographer told me about my dense breast tissue. She also said there were suspicious dark, ‘spiculated’ areas which looked different to the rest of the breast that needed more investigation. One in particular made her highly suspicious of cancer.
![[Clare Cowhig: Doctors said I had the 'densest breasts' they had ever seen, then I was diagnosed with cancer]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233459826-31b9.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
I was stunned. How could this be happening when I’d had a clear mammogram nine months before?. The next few weeks were a blur of hospital visits, imaging, and biopsies – and when I finally got the diagnosis, it felt like the ground had fallen away beneath me.
