Irish blogger Rosie Connolly has encouraged women around the country to check their breasts regularly after she discovered a lump last week.
The 30-year-old revealed the cancer scare to her 344,000 followers on Instagram yesterday.
On Lunchtime Live this afternoon, she told Andrea that she endured a “terrifying” week while awaiting an appointment with her consultant.
“Obviously when you find a lump you immediately think breast cancer,” she said. “Well that's what I thought. My mum and my nana both had breast cancer so it was the first thing that came to mind. The whole week was just a blur to be honest.”
She said she decided to go public with her story in the hope it would encourage other women to get to know their bodies.
“I, unfortunately, was not looking for this lump and I was nearly embarrassed because of the month that is in it,” she said.
“All the advertising that is going on at the moment to encourage you to check your breasts, I wasn’t checking them. I definitely wasn’t checking them enough and I found it by accident.
“That was one thing that made me realise that I made that mistake of not checking but I need to, if I can, encourage people to do it.
“Sometimes you might listen to someone and go, 'oh yeah I need to check them,' but that goes on a list of things you need to do and you just don’t do it and it takes so little time.”
Ms Connolly said she normally holds off on discussing difficult events in her life until after she has come through them but, on this occasion, she felt it was important speak out.
“I think it hit home with people a lot more because I’m not out of the woods yet,” she said.
“I don’t know what I am. My consultant is quite positive about it but until tests are done and we get answers, I am not sure.
“I think that rawness and how real it is for me right now is what got people’s attention and I am glad I did it now. At the time, it was a very real and raw thing to put out on the internet but I just feel it's only going to do good if it makes people check.
“I had a woman message me this morning to say she checked and she did find a lump last night. She messaged me very early to say she was waiting on her doctors to open.
“So, I voice-messaged her back and just said, ‘I know how you feel. It is very scary but it’s amazing you found it and now you're on the right path to get it treated, whatever it is.”
The Dubliner said her husband and family have been extremely supportive over the past week - and life has gone on as normal for her young children.
“My kids are so young, they are one-and-a-half and five, and life goes on as normal for them,” she said.
“I didn’t want to get upset around them but I just found it so hard to even to look at them because I thought, ‘what if I do have breast cancer and what if this isn’t going to just go away?
“I suppose I never really thought about myself getting sick. I am very healthy, I’m fit, I look after myself, I eat well and I have never for a second thought about my health and me not being there.
“I just spent the week letting my mind go there. I was trying to not let my mind go there but it did and it was almost impossible to put it out of your mind.”
She said people should remember that you can often feel perfectly healthy before getting a breast cancer diagnosis.
“Don’t wait until you are starting to feel ill or anything,” she said. “Just get to know your body, book you smear check and get your checks done.
“Just because screening doesn’t start till 50 in Ireland doesn’t mean that we should only start checking our breasts at 50.
“It is so important. Even if you never find anything, keep checking because then you’ll understand and if there are changes there, you’ll know that wasn’t there before and you’ll get to know your body.”
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