Woman told she had rare cancer after doctors dismissed ‘golf ball-sized lump’ as a cyst

A woman was diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer after she was initially told blood leaking from her nipple "was normal". Jayanne Suggett, who was 27 at the time, had been suffering from shoulder pain for a while.

She then discovered a “golf ball-sized lump” around her left rib cage. Jayanne was told that it was a cyst, and that she was probably “too young” for it to be serious.

However, over the next few weeks the pain became worse and in February 2020 she ended up in A&E when blood started leaking from her nipple. When doctors told her that this was “normal” Jayanne pushed for answers and shortly after lockdown she was told she had a rare form of breast cancer, the Liverpool Echo reports.

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Jayanne, who is now 30 and lives in Scotland, had further symptoms and she immediately started chemotherapy before having a double mastectomy. She said:" I'm very special, no-one has this form of breast cancer, they can't figure out where it came from or how."

Now she’s waiting for further reconstruction surgery on a “huge waiting list” but thinks things might have been different had her shoulder pain been taken seriously. She said: "Age is very much a stigma, I was dismissed and in a way I stopped fighting for myself because everyone tells you you're wrong and you think they know best.

"But listen to your gut and check your body. I'm happy I'm alive and I can tell my story, I do see the world in a different light. I know I'm different and I'm glad to be."

Jayanne’s experience inspired her auntie JoAnne Briody-Skinner, from St Helens, to do something to help. JoAnne has lost other family members to different forms of cancer.