Over the past few weeks, I have noticed a big push for breast cancer screening to be extended to ladies in the 65-69 age bracket. While I agree screening for this particular group is important and necessary, I am concerned with the lack of attention given to women under 40.

I was first diagnosed with breast cancer this time last year. As a result of my situation I met seven other women who also have or have had breast cancer. Five of the seven are less than 40 years old.

We began to meet regularly for coffee, and have now set up a Facebook page called Breast Friends. The page attracted around 600 likes in its first ten days of being active. We all have different personal living circumstances. Some are single mothers, some are married mothers and others are single. We all have or have had different types of breast cancer and importantly, we all had different symptoms when we first discovered there was something wrong.

"Waiting rooms were full of young women attending for oncology and radiation treatment."

In my own experience, I first went to my doctor with a lump and I was told that it was more than likely nothing to be worried about as I was so young, extremely fit and had no history of cancer in my family. I was referred to St James’s Hospital and received an appointment about three weeks later.

Upon diagnosis, I was told it was unusual for someone my age to have breast cancer. However, as soon as I started treatment I quickly realised that this was not the case. Waiting rooms were full of young women attending for oncology and radiation treatment.

My therapy began with chemotherapy (four Ax and four Taxol) once a fortnight for 16 weeks. Six weeks later I had surgery and then six weeks of post-surgical radiation. Following surgery I was put on a five-year course of Tamoxifen.

Last week, I met with four other women (all in their 30s) and discussed how our age group is being overlooked in both education and early detection. We also spoke about our disappointment in the recent coverage on TV3’s Ireland AM in which an “expert opinion” was delivered by a member of the Irish Ladies Rugby team.

While I appreciate high profile people dedicating their time to raise awareness around the disease, this particular person had never had breast cancer, did not have any family history relating to the disease and indeed her closest encounter with was another team member’s mother who had suffered from breast cancer. It left us asking: “Why was she being interviewed to raise awareness? How could we identify with her?"

The thing that the eight of us in “Breast Friends” have in common, is we all have battled breast cancer in the past year and we all heard the same thing from doctors on how it is quite unusual for someone in our age group. And yet, walking into the breast care department or oncology in St James’s it is full of women our age going through treatment.

Through our Facebook page and regular meet-ups our common goal is to try and achieve the following:

• An increased awareness among the medical profession and women in the 25-45 age group for Breast Cancer. 
• To provide support and advice to fellow sufferers and their family members regarding all aspects of Breast Cancer, from initial diagnosis to communicating condition with family especially children, aspects of Chemo and Radiotherapy, surgery, post surgery, hospital experience and professional support or lack thereof. We would like our Facebook details to be made freely available to any young woman upon diagnosis so they can benefit from our combined experience.
• A better regime for early diagnosis and more specific screening.

There is so little education given on how to detect this early and I don't feel young women (and men) are being represented properly in relation to something that is affecting us in huge volumes. While I understand that mammograms can provide false positives in younger women, that doesn't change the fact that screening should be freely available to them.  

Ideally, there should be a service offered to the under-40s where they can avail of a breast check from a trained professional. I myself know that even when a lot of women check themselves we don’t really know what to be looking for or if we are carrying out the procedure correctly. It dosen’t matter how many diagrams or dvds we watch to show us how to do this, most women whom I have spoken to will admit they haven’t a clue about potential symptoms (of which there are many). 

We want a platform so that women can share how to explain “mummy being sick” to our children, difficulties facing this disease as a single parent, as a single person, or with the support of a partner.

We also have beauty tips on how to look your best during and after your treatment, feelings of guilt, worrying about the perception of ‘vanity’ (can I still get botox?), chemo side effects, radiation side effects, surgery experience, dietary tips, exercise, hair and wig advice, skin and dental care, psychological support and an endless list of other aspects which us young women have first-hand understanding of.  

Between the eight of us we want to share our experience with other people in our age group and how to not only fight it but live through it too.