Inspired by a thread currently in Chat, PLEASE take a couple of minutes to read this and a couple more to act on it, for YOUR sake and that of those you love.
I'm (I hope!) a reasonably intelligent woman, I'm fairly health and news aware, I knew about breast cancer. I knew that it is rarely found in someone with no family history of it, who doesn't eat meat, who is slim and fit, who is under 40.
And I know that women like that generally think the same way. And as a result, like me when I was under 40, they don't check their breasts, they go about life each day informed of an issue which doesn't concern them personally.
Just like I did... until I got to the age of 37 and discovered a lump in my breast by chance when I was having a bath.
I'm one of the lucky ones.
I had a lumpectomy and subsequently my ovaries removed to prevent my body producing oestrogen that could kill me. I've a dent in my boob, was hurled into instant menopause following the ovarian surgery with all the horrible and very pronounced effects that go with it but I'm alive and my children still have a mother.
If this inspires just ONE woman to check her breasts, one woman who would otherwise think as I did that it can't happen to her, I've done right, as painful as it is to me for the memories to be brought back. I'll show my scar off, talk about it to strangers, nag folk, do whatever it takes to prevent someone else's children from losing their mother.
So please ladies, no matter how young, how fit you are, how good you feel... check your breasts and tell every other woman you know my story.