Lydia's Story
“It doesn’t matter how young you are, this can creep up on you. There needs to be more awareness, and more young women need to know how to do a breast check.”
When Lydia Whelan was diagnosed with breast cancer last July at age 32, it came as a shock. She had noticed some concerning changes in her breast that she decided to get checked out, which led to her diagnosis of stage two breast cancer.
“I was getting changed one day, when I caught sight of myself in the corner of the mirror and noticed that my left breast looked bruised, and it had sunken in a bit and looked bigger than my left breast,” says Lydia, who is from Kildare.
“I left it for a few days, because I thought maybe I’d just bumped off something before but didn’t notice I’d done it. So, I left it for a week. Then I mentioned it to my sister, and she told me I should get it checked out. I couldn’t feel a lump, but when I would put my left arm down, my boob would sink in. The doctor checked it, and said there was something there, and referred me to get it checked.”
Lydia went to St James’s Hospital for a triple assessment in mid-July and went back to the hospital on the 30th of July, with her partner, Colm, to find out the results of her assessment.
“A nurse called us in, and I just sat down, but I was a ball of nerves. The doctor started speaking, and he said he had my biopsy results, and he was sorry to have to inform me that I had breast cancer."
“I just froze, and then there were a lot of tears from me and my partner. I asked what stage the cancer was at, and he said, going from what he could see on the scans, it looked like stage two. And I thought, OK, that’s not the worst. I had test upon test upon test for the two weeks after that, it was a rollercoaster.”
The news also coincided with Lydia and her partner going sale agreed on a house, but Lydia’s diagnosis meant she could not be approved for mortgage protection. This added to her stress at an already difficult time.
"The week I found the lump; we went sale agreed on a house. We went to get mortgage protection, but they wouldn’t give it to us because of my diagnosis – we nearly lost our house."
“My partner went back to the lender and had to draw down the mortgage by himself with help from his parents and my parents, and I got a home improvement loan. But I can’t go on the mortgage until I’m in remission for seven years. I think I cried more over all of this than I did when I was told I had breast cancer.”
Lydia began chemotherapy at the end of August 2024, and she’s been receiving it every three weeks for the last year, with a break during Christmas. Going through treatment has been a difficult adjustment for Lydia, as she has been off sick from her a job as a support worker for adults with intellectual disabilities while she deals with the physical effects of getting chemotherapy.
“I know if I get chemo on Monday, I’ll be very sick that Friday. I’ll be completely wiped. It feels like the life has been sucked out of me. I’ll have no energy.
“It’s very daunting the first time you go in for chemo, when you see other people sitting in there getting it done too. I have days where I’m really unwell because of the chemo, but then I tell myself, I’m 32, I need to get through this and hopefully down the line this will all be a distant memory, just a blip.”
Lydia credits the support of her friends and family for helping her to get through her treatment and maintain a positive outlook.
“My partner, Colm, my parents and my sister have all been incredible,” she says. “They’ve been taking to me to appointments, bathing me when I can’t wash myself, and I’m just so lucky to have them. I feel very blessed. Everyone has been great to me, but I know it’s not just me going through this, everyone else in my life is going through this with me too.”
