A cancer survivor has shared her experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer in her 20s at 16 weeks pregnant.

On World Cancer Day, Claire Butler Jones joined Lunchtime Live to talk about how cancer doesn’t just affect people of a “certain age”.

“A lot of people think there's a certain age where these things kind of knock at your door and it really isn't the case,” she said.

“I'd love to, if anything, get that message across to young women and men.

“Self-examination at home is so easy to do and it can be the answer to everything when you do it.”

Ms Jones was diagnosed with breast cancer back in August of 2019 when she had just turned 30 and was 16 weeks pregnant.

“I was away on holidays in the May and I found a lump and went to my GP about it about a month later,” she said.

“I was sent then to St Vincent's Hospital towards the end of August and I was diagnosed then.”

Woman performing a self breast examination. Image: Alamy

Until Ms Jones got diagnosed, the “theme” was being told that it might not being anything as she was so young - but they needed to get it checked out.

“It was all very fast from [the diagnosis] and… initially they had said I might need treatment at all,” she said.

“I went in for a right mastectomy at the end of September and they were hoping that might show it was kind of early enough that I wouldn't need chemo or anything like that but unfortunately the tumour was much bigger than they had anticipated.

“I had four rounds of chemo and then I had a caesarean section with Sonny, my son, he was born in the January… followed by another four rounds chemo and then I had another surgery and radiation the summer after that.”

"I had no hair but he had a full head of hair"

Ms Jones said she was very worried about her pregnancy throughout her treatment.

“I couldn't get my head around, you know, what was going to happen to Sonny,” she said.

“But they really reassured me at the time and said, you know, ‘The maternity hospital will look after Sonny, we'll look after you’ - and they did just that.

“In the January, he was born, full head of hair - I had no hair, but he had a full head of hair.

“It was amazing to see, you know, the human body is just amazing – he was completely untouched.”

Closeup of a young caucasian woman holding a pink ribbon in front of her face for breast cancer awareness. Image: Alamy

After her initial diagnosis, Ms Jones was diagnosed with the BRCA2 and CHEK2 genes which both carry a breast cancer risk.

“That was nearly another diagnosis in itself,” she said.

“At the time, I kind of didn't want to know about it, but since then, I've had risk reducing surgeries.

“I've had my ovaries removed and have been launched into menopause and that, but all very doable.

“Since then, it's kind of given my own family more information and it does help us to be aware of things.”

"Information is key to prevention"

Ms Jones lost her father to pancreatic cancer in 2022 and discovered weeks after his passing that he also had BRCA2 and CHEK2 genes.

“Information is key to prevention and that's ultimately what I want to do with breast cancer, is to raise that awareness for young women,” she said.

Ms Jones is now “holding out” for a breast reconstruction but “all is looking well” for her.

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Claire Butler Jones. Image: Newstalk