Jenny's story

In 2021, I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. I found a lump in my right breast and then it went away. I even asked my husband to check because I was really concerned, and I've always been very diligent about checking.

We couldn't find anything, so I let it go. The next month, I checked again, and it was like a big mac truck and I'm thinking, how did I miss that?

I went to the GP, had all my tests done and was officially diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma in August.

I had surgery but I was adamant that I didn’t want chemotherapy. I’d been told that I didn’t need it and had made my mind up that I wasn’t having it. However, by the time the surgery happened the tumor had doubled in size.

I saw an oncologist who explained that I needed chemotherapy because it had spread, so I ended up doing four rounds and then onto radiation.

Telling the children was probably the hardest part of everything. You don't want to give them too much information, or misinformation, so I just slowly gave them the information that they needed to have. They all handled differently. They were all upset, but I'm glad I told them. It's really important because they're your family, they're part of your support group as well.

I think it’s important to be honest with your family, be honest with your friends, tell them how you're feeling and have patience. Going through all those treatments is really difficult mentally and physically, for both you and your family.

What I found really helpful was BCNA’s My Journey. My nurse recommended it because it is very trustworthy, it's accurate, it's relevant to my type of breast cancer. You don't have to look at a million types of breast cancer and you're getting just the correct information.