An oncology nurse trusted her instincts after claiming that doctors told her that a mass in her right breast was “probably nothing” — but it turned out to be cancer.
“I cried my eyes out and first asked if I was going to die and second if I was going to lose all my hair,” Sophie Jackson, 26, from Bournemouth, England, told NeedToKnow.online. “Other than the lump I had no other symptoms whatsoever.
“It felt completely random and the diagnosis was such a shock. I felt let down. The doctors initially thought it was nothing purely based on age.”
Jackson went to the doctor after finding a lump last September, but was allegedly told that it was “likely hormonal” and to “wait four weeks to see if the feeling disappeared,” according to Jam Press.
However, as a nurse who helps provides cancer care, Jackson insisted on a breast clinic referral.
An ultrasound and four biopsies revealed that she had stage 2 invasive ductal carcinoma.
She said: “When I was diagnosed it was extremely overwhelming — usually you drip feed patient information as it is way too much to take on at once.
“I didn’t have that luxury and instead was instantly aware of facing surgery, chemo, losing my hair and becoming infertile at such a young age.”
Jackson underwent a lumpectomy and has undergone several cycles of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which is a treatment that uses radiation to eradicate cancer cells. As someone who worked in cancer wards, Jackson called it “an out-of-body experience” to be on the other side of treatment. She also recalled feeling distressed that she was unwell and couldn’t work.
Fallout from the treatment included Jackson losing her hair, including her eyelashes and her eyebrows. In February, she shaved her head and started sporting headscarves. She has also undergone fertility preservation and will spend the next 10 years enduring injections, tablets and IV infusions every six months as part of maintenance hormone therapy, according to Jam Press.
Jackson, who has been told her cancer could return in the next two years, is bent on spreading awareness about the disease and the importance of advocating for yourself when engaging with doctors. Research has suggested that women and their pain can be dismissed in a medical setting.
“It’s a huge issue in medicine,” Dr. Tia Powell, director of the Center for Bioethics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System, told the New York Times.
She added: “It can be hard to speak up if you feel you’re not being treated fairly. I’m a professor at a medical school and I struggled with it.”
Jackson noted that if she had waited four weeks as her doctor had advised, her cancer may have spread — and she told NeedToKnow.online that she may have “been looking at an incurable diagnosis.
“Early detection has saved my life so it’s so important to check monthly and push to get things checked out.”
