Having been told by my mum's gynae that I had lumpy breasts as a teenager and that was 'going to be problematic' in the future, I've always been wary, but not actually done anything about it. What was there to do? So when the first lumps appeared in 2008, I was all for having them removed. I was already jobless having been ill with a balance disorder from an ear infection brought on by being violently…
The referral was a fortnight later on 27 October at the Borders General Hospital (BGH), where I met my breast cancer consultant, for whom I had prepared. I had googled him, worked out what sort of character he would be, and was ready for him being mildly apoplectic that (I had guessed) there were no notes, no scans, de nada from Homerton Hospital to give BGH's team some clues about what lumps had been where previously…
It began with admitting to my new GP on 13 October 2016 that I had been pretending the mahoosive lump in my left breast was nothing to worry about.
After all, back in 2014 when I was living full time in London, the breast team at Homerton Hospital had told me to go away, enjoy my life, forget about the lumps, not have regular check ups as my age and family history didn't warrant them, and only come back if I had…
