A young teacher told about her devastating diagnosis of cancer after doctors initially rejected her concerns and brought her ‘lumpy breasts’ to her young age.
Beth Ferguson, 30, from Glasgow, saw a small lump on her left breast for the first time while showering one evening in March 2022.
But given her age, fitness levels and family history, the math teacher was initially not worried.
She visited her doctor who assured her that it was ‘very unlikely’ that the clog was cancer -like, because ‘young people have lumpy breasts’.
Broking animals in the breasts can develop for a number of reasons and are often caused by something harmless such as tissue growth or a structure of liquid, according to the NHS.
Mrs. Ferguson’s doctors at the local breast clinic thought this was the case, because the lump was flexible and mobile, which indicates a cyst or non-cancer-like growth.
“At the moment I’m not worried,” she remembered. ‘The consultant was not worried because it was small and I was so young, but suggested that I returned when there were changes.
“So life went on.
Beth was not concerned initially when she found the clog because she was the health care she had ever had and did not have a family history of the disease
After initially fired by doctors, the clog started to grow and Beth was diagnosed with breast cancer
Beth continued her marathon training, went to the gym and teach during her first few months of treatment
“I was training and completed the Boston Marathon and was engaged to my partner in New York.”
But in August 2023, just before the new school year started, she realized that the clog had grown. She went back to her doctor and was referred to Gartnavel Hospital, Glasgow.
Scans later revealed that she had a triple negative tumor – a kind of aggressive breast cancer that usually affects women under 40.
“Looking back I was a bit numb to be honest,” she said.
‘You hardly believe it because I felt so fit and healthy. I don’t have a family history of breast cancer, so I thought it was unlikely that it would be something serious.
“It was such a strange feeling to be so good, but had such a terrible disease.”
Only two months later, the young teacher started the first of 16 debilitating rounds of chemotherapy.
Determined in order not to admit to her illness, Ferguson continued to be active between treatments, continuing her marathon training and teaching the first few months.
Beth and her partner were engaged shortly before her diagnosis in New York
Beth said she was surprised that she could feel so good, but has such an aggressive disease
Only a month after completing chemotherapy, Mrs. Ferguson underwent breast reconstruction surgery to make a new breast in March 2024.
But then Mrs. Ferguson got the devastating news that she could no longer weaken naturally if she would not freeze her eggs before she started with immunotherapy to further reduce the cancer.
‘They close my ovaries to protect them – I went into the menopause at night. ‘
But after a long battle, Ferguson got everything clear in May 2024 that she described as a ‘strange’ feeling.
“I don’t think this is what I had imagined,” she said. ‘I struggled with the after effects of how I can withdraw into my life.
“Although it was great news, and everyone around me was happy that it was the start of fear for me.”
Mrs. Ferguson is now campaigning for a better understanding of the disease, to support new research funded by charitable breast cancer now and secondary 1st to develop more targeted treatment for rare but aggressive cancer.
Researchers led by Professor Seth Coffelt, from the University of Glasgow, received almost £ 400,000 to finance research into a kind of immunotherapy that can kill these specific cancer cells and prevent them from spreading.
Beth underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy followed by breast reconstruction surgery and immunotherapy to reduce the cancer
Beth now supports research into more targeted treatments for the disease with 11,5000 women who die of breast cancer every year in the UK
Mrs. Ferguson said: ‘I appreciate the investigation at the Beaston Institute because it was the team in Glasgow that treated me and took care of me, with everything I experienced.
‘It is so important that we have more research into triple negative breast cancer. The hope that the researchers will find other targeted therapies on time for people like me is what keeps me going every day. ‘
Three -stern negative breast cancer affects about 15 percent of women with the disease.
Symptoms include a lump or thickening in the chest or armpit, turn into the shape or the feeling of the chest, skin changes such as pucking dimples or a rash and liquid that leaks out of the nipple.
In some cases, women with triple negative breast cancer will have a mistake in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes – the Angelina Jolie Breast Cancer – gene after the actress had undergone a preventive double mastectomy after positive testing in 2013.
One in seven women in the UK is diagnosed with breast cancer during their lives – about 56,000 a year – making it the most common cancer in the UK.
The time has been that new research has suggested that cases of breast cancer increase in the course of the 1950s.
Now experts are campaigning for women as young as thirty to be screened on breast cancer on the NHS, causing twenty years to bring out checks.
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