When Linda Howell was 30 weeks pregnant, she noticed a small lump in her breast about the size of a Tic Tac mint.
At first, she was worried. But she was placated by the midwives who told her it was just a blocked milk duct.
It wasn't.
Nearly five months later, after Linda's baby was born, she noticed a blood clot in her milk. Soon afterwards, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
In the 15 months since, Linda, now 38, has had a double mastectomy and multiple rounds of chemotherapy. She's still in treatment and that experience, and the delay in her diagnosis, has changed her life forever.
It led her to start the BEAT Movement, an organisation that raises awareness about breast cancer in younger women and provides support for people during and after treatment.
Here, Linda and Kerry Smith — who connected through the group in Adelaide — share their stories in their own words.
'No-one seemed to know you can get cancer during pregnancy': Linda
We were in COVID isolation when I received my diagnosis. I was told I had stage-two breast cancer. It was local — it hadn't spread to my lymph nodes somehow.
At the time, I had a two-year-old and an eight-week-old baby.
It was pretty daunting because I couldn't even leave the house. When you get news like that, you want to go sit on a beach somewhere and think.
The treatment was 15 rounds of chemotherapy, followed by a double mastectomy, followed by 15 rounds of dose-dense radiation, followed by 17 rounds of another chemotherapy drug.
I've got four more treatments to go. I've had a lot of side effects, but I've got to keep going. I've had a pulmonary embolism, a dangerous blot clot in my lung. At one point, my heart function was only 30 per cent and I couldn't walk.
I feel like I'm in a better place now. But when I got my diagnosis, I'd known about the lump for five months. It's a long time when you understand how quick cancer can spread.
I was just really annoyed that no-one seemed to know that you can get cancer during pregnancy. That did my head in.
How did I get five months down the track and no-one even said, 'You might want to get an ultrasound or a biopsy or something?'
That's why I decided to start the BEAT Movement.
What we want to do — and what we have been doing already — is getting up in front of people like midwives so they can hear our stories.
Next time one of their patients says, 'I've got this lump', they know what to do. They know to refer them on to a doctor immediately and get a referral for an ultrasound. It could save lives.
'For the first time in forever, I felt normal': Kerry
I was originally diagnosed just before my 39th birthday.
I'm a registered nurse and I work in an operating theatre with breast surgeons. I was pretty quick to get on top of things when I noticed some changes.
Within two weeks' time, I'd had a bunch of scans and I had to go in for a double mastectomy and a lymph node biopsy.
My cancer is currently stable.
I will probably be on hormone blockers and dealing with the side effects of those for at least 10 years. Hopefully then it might be safe for us to cut off that treatment.
I stumbled on the BEAT Movement by pure accident when Linda was organising a photo shoot last year. I was going through a really difficult time.
The photo shoot was the first time I'd been around so many women who'd had breast cancer.
I remember calling my mum on the way home and crying the whole way home. I remember just saying that for the first time in forever, I felt normal.
I had some photos taken of my mastectomy scars. I actually have a tattoo which covers my scars, because my scars are the most painful part, seeing them every day.
I apologised to the photographer before I took my shirt off. She told me to never, ever apologise, because my scars showed how strong I was and what I could survive through.
I remember feeling in that moment that the photographer was so understanding and so kind and so gentle with me.
I messaged Linda afterwards and just said to her, 'What you've created is a space for me where I got to feel normal — like a complete person again.'
'Life never goes back to normal after cancer': Kerry
Once treatment finishes, people who have never been through cancer before thinks it's all finished and life goes back to normal. The thing is, life never goes back to normal.
The focus is on the medical, the focus is on getting you through the cancer treatment and the chemotherapy and the surgery.
But no-one's actually there to focus on what you're going through and what you're mentally and emotionally experiencing.
At the photo shoot, there were women there who had lost their fertility, there were women who were dealing with their stage-four cancer, all these different things.
You feel for these women. You understand that even if its 10-15 years down the road from their cancer experience and treatment, it's still as close in your brain as it was happening yesterday.
It's something that never ever goes away.
This article is based on interviews with Linda and Kerry. Parts have been edited for clarity and brevity.
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