Anne's story

“The day I got diagnosed with breast cancer was the day I first learnt about my breast density,” Anne says. “My final diagnosis one month later was Stage 3 breast cancer, with the primary having spread into my lymph glands and pectoral muscle.”

Our member Anne is in her 70s, but attended scheduled BreastScreen mammograms every two years from her 50s and was each time given the all clear. In 2023, just 5 months after she received another “all clear”, Anne noticed a change in her right breast along with a mass.  Her GP ordered an urgent mammogram and ultrasound, and she was subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer. Anne’s treatment included a right mastectomy, lymph node removal, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and endocrine therapy.

Anne experienced feelings of disbelief and anger. “I wasn’t one who asked ‘why me’, more the realisation that the health care system seemed to have let me down,” Anne explains. “Withholding information and visual findings known to be risk factors for developing breast cancer is not in a woman’s best interest.”  

Anne found BCNA’s My Journey and website information and resources helpful throughout her experience.  Her adult children and friends have also been a wonderful support. “You learn just how much you are loved, which is humbling,” she says. “But it has been very difficult for my children to come to terms with as they lost their father five years ago to terminal bowel cancer.”

Anne says her diagnosis has meant she prioritises finding enjoyment in each day. “I make sure those I love know just how much they are loved,” she adds.

BCNA has been advocating for a risk-stratified model for the current BreastScreen population-based screening model so that the risk factor of breast density is considered. “Know your breast density and keep asking,” advises Anne. “Women need to be informed about breast density and made aware of why they need to know.”