Mom, 30, who found a lump on her breast “just knew something was wrong”

A mom feared she could not care for her baby after being diagnosed with cancer after 31 weeks of pregnancy.

Claire Hilton-Ellison said she was “in disbelief” when told she had stage 3 cancer after feeling a lump in her breast.

She started chemotherapy while still pregnant with little Jude – and underwent further rounds of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation after giving birth.

The 30-year-old, from Huyton, Knowsley, Merseyside, is now urging other young women to regularly check their breasts, reports the Liverpool Echo.

She said, “You hear about cancer all the time. It is still relevant. You see the statistics, like one in two of us will be affected, and that’s a really, really high number.

“You always think, ‘It won’t be me.’ I think it’s me and, my God, millions of others that would think that way, and you just don’t think it’s going to happen to you.

“But then when I found a bump, I was obviously hoping for the best, but I just knew in my guts that something was wrong.”

Education worker Claire was diagnosed with breast cancer about a month after discovering the lump.

The time between the two was “excruciating”, wondering if she would live the future she envisioned. She was worried about the baby growing inside her and if she would be there to take care of it.

Claire told ECHO: “You feel like the worst is going to happen, and then, ‘Oh actually no, it could be nothing, it will be nothing’.

“And then the next hour you might be like, ‘Oh my God, is this going to be like stage four cancer?’ To be perfectly honest, am I going to die?

There were times when Claire felt overwhelmed by emotions.

She told ECHO: “I remember times when I was sitting alone in my room because I wouldn’t want my husband, or my mother or my sister, to see me so scared.

“You know they fear the worst too but hope for the best, and they don’t want to show you how scared they are.

“So it’s like you’re playing against each other.

“They don’t want to show me, I don’t want to show them.

“It’s one of those times when you kind of feel like, you know you’re not alone, but you’re the one going through it.”

Breast care nurses at Aintree Hospital and Macmillan Cancer Support put Claire in touch with a woman who was also pregnant when she was diagnosed with breast cancer the year before.

Meeting someone who lived through the emotions she was going through made Claire feel less alone as she underwent treatment at Aintree Hospital and Clatterbridge Cancer Center in Liverpool.

Claire underwent three cycles of safe chemotherapy during pregnancy before giving birth to baby Jude. She then underwent 12 more chemotherapy sessions, followed by surgery and radiation therapy.

Now, more than nine months after her diagnosis, Claire is one week away from the third stage of active treatment. She will continue to receive injections to try to prevent her cancer from coming back.

Her baby is eight months old and “the commando is crawling” around the house, which means Claire is having sleepless nights and “chasing Jude left, right and center.”

But she’s happy to be on the other end of treatment, grateful that she caught cancer on time and was seen quickly by doctors after sounding the alarm, an experience she admits is not. not true for everyone.

Now Claire is urging other young people to check their breasts regularly, as they won’t be invited for breast cancer screening until they’re 50.

She raised around £ 12,000 last year to fund cancer treatment and support, along with groups like Macmillan and CoppaFeel.

Claire also runs an Instagram account sharing her story to raise awareness and inspire others to take charge of their health and be their best advocate.

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She told ECHO: “Mammograms in this country only start for women over 50.

“So there is literally no way to detect anything wrong, until you get to this point. The only way to find something before that is auto-detection.

“One thing that frustrates me so much is the number of women I talk to who have been told, ‘Oh, it won’t be anything, you’re too young for this to be anything serious, or for it to be a problem. cancer “.

“And that’s just not true, because cancer rates in young women are on the rise, especially with breast cancer.

“What I’m trying to scream from the rooftops since my diagnosis is right, make sure you know your own body because that’s the only reason I found my bump.”

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