A new mother’s worst health fears were confirmed when a lump doctors told her was a cyst turned out to be breast cancer.
Vickie McHugh from Birmingham found a growth in her right breast weeks after she delivered a baby girl.
But after a hospital scan, her doctor told her it was just a cyst from expressing milk for her daughter, Olivia.
Vickie McHugh, pictured with her daughter Olivia, was terrified to be told that what doctors originally thought was a cyst was in fact stage three cancer
Relieved, the mother went home – only for the lump to grow and force her to go back to her GP surgery months later, Mirror Online reports.
She spent the next seven months in and out of hospital as medics tried to drain what they still thought was a cyst.
But the lump continued to grow despite and tests on the liquid coming back clear. She claims it was only when a new specialist agreed to surgically remove it that she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.
The new mother has undergone give rounds of chemotherapy and faces another after she was told she had breast cancer
She says nurses at the hospital were reduced to tears as her ‘world came crashing down’ after being diagnosed following the July 2016 birth.
‘It was just one month after Olivia’s first birthday and I was terrified I wouldn’t see her grow up,’ she said. ‘My life flashed before my eyes. I was thinking about things that I wanted to do that I hadn’t done yet.’
The 34-year-old hopes to raise awareness of Macmillan Cancer Support by sharing her story.
She is looking forward to Mothering Sunday tomorrow after her tough start to motherhood.
The 34-year-old was in and out of hospital for seven months as her lump was repeatedly drained to no avail
Olivia was born five weeks early, needing specialist care and unable to digest formula.
It was when the new mother tried breastfeeding her daughter in September 2016 that she found the lump.
Over the following months, fluid was drained from the cyst to be aspirated and tested, with results coming back as ‘normal’.
‘Staff at the hospital would then aspirate fluid from the cyst to be tested which kept coming back with clear results,” she said. ‘This continual cycle was emotionally draining as the lump kept coming back bigger and bigger after each aspiration.’
The new mother says she is looking forward to spending Mothering Sunday just being a parent after her difficult start to motherhood
After begging her doctor for help, she was referred to a specialist who once again drained the lump and told her he would remove it if it returned.
The growth came back just one day later, when she said ‘it felt as though it had taken over the whole of my breast’ and was ‘very painful’.
She went to the hospital to secure a surgery date in August 2017, when she was told she had cancer.
Her plans for a single mastectomy were dashed hours before the surgery, when she tested positive for the BRCA2 gene, leaving her in need of a double mastectomy.
Vickie McHugh bravely faced chemotherapy, cutting her hair before facing the six rounds needed to fight the cancer
She underwent the procedure in September last year while looking after her young daughter. The size of the lump – 7cm – prevented her from undergoing immediate reconstruction.
The brave survivor has battled through five rounds of chemotherapy, which she says has been ‘one of the hardest aspects’ of her journey so far. In 2019, she will undergo removal of her ovaries and fallopian tubes.
This Mother’s Day comes just before her final round of chemotherapy and she says sh’e looking forward to finally focusing on ‘just being mummy’.
A spokeswoman for Macmillan Cancer Support said: ‘A mum with cancer is still a mum. At Macmillan Cancer Support, we believe life with cancer is still your life and we’re here to help you live it.’