I dismissed dimple as a stretch mark but burst into tears when doctors said it was breast cancer sign
A MUM who dismissed a dimple as a stretch mark was left in tears when doctors told her it was a sign of breast cancer.
Demelza Jefferis was getting out of the shower when she noticed the mark on her cleavage.
At first, the 42-year-old dismissed it as a stretch mark but after looking again she realised it was a small dent that only appeared when her arm was raised.
Demelza, who lives in Plymouth, Devon, has a history of breast cancer in the family and said she has always been thorough with checking for abnormalities.
At the age of 58 her grandmother sadly died of breast cancer and Demelza believes her grandmother had been watching over her that day as she accidentally dropped her towel and spotted the cancer sign.
In order to inspect the mark, the mum-of-one relaxed her arm close to 100 times to inspect the small crease which appeared by her left nipple.
She then called her husband Gary, 42, to see if he could also see the mark.
Demelza then contacted her GP who referred her for mammograms and biopsies.
On April 21, a month after she noticed the dent - the tests confirmed that she had stage two breast cancer.
After successful treatment and getting the all-clear, she is now bravely sharing images of the dimple-like shape in the hope of making other women aware of the signs to look out for.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer in women?
Breast cancer is the name given to any cancers that have first developed in the breast tissue – there are many different types.
For most women, the first sign or symptom of breast cancer is a lump or area of thickened tissue in their breast.
While 90 per cent of such lumps are not cancerous, it is vital to get them checked by your GP at the earliest opportunity – detecting the disease early can mean treatment is more effective.
It is therefore vitally important to be "breast aware" - know what feels normal for you, and therefore what changes to look out for.
One in three women do not regularly check their breasts, and a fifth of these women say it is because they don't know how to do it.
What to look out for
- Redness or rash
- Change in breast size or shape
- Nipple discharge
- Swelling in the armpit or around the collarbone
- Change in skin texture
- An inverted nipple
- Constant pain
Demelza said: "I've always looked at my boobs, checked and felt them.
"I've always been amazed at how many people have actually said they would never think to check. It takes two minutes.
"At this time, when I didn't actually look and feel, it was the time that something was actually there.
"Someone was definitely looking over me that day, for sure. I'm a true believer in that - someone was looking over me and saying, 'we need to get you to have a look'. It's really uncanny how everything unfolded.”
She said that when the coronavirus lockdown first started she was more concerned that she would no longer be able to have her armpits waxed.
The day she got out of the shower she said she noticed how hairy her arm pits had become and thought to herself that she would have to try and find a home waxing kit.
She added: "With that, I had my left arm up and my towel dropped. As my towel dropped, I went to grab it and I looked up in the mirror. The light was shining through the window, and I thought, 'oh, what's that?'.
"I thought, having had kids, it was just a stretch mark. I thought it was a stretch mark for a split second, until I put my arm back up.
"I was just like, 'no, that's definitely not a stretch mark' and I didn't like the look of it at all.
"I put my arm up again to check. I must have done it a good 10 to 100 times because every time I put my arm up it was there, and every time I put it down, it wasn't there.
"'Oh my days', I thought, 'what the hell is this?'. I shouted to my husband and told him that he needed to check both my boobs and tell me if he sees anything on them at all.”
She said Gary noticed the line and she asked him to point to it, so she knew they had both been looking at the same mark.
"I put my arms down, and he said it had gone; I put my arms up and he said it was there. I kept putting up and down, and we both checked, and he said, 'that's definitely not right'."
Demelza had an MRI scan and then on May 18 she had an operation to remove the lump from her chest.
She said: "I don't remember much of the consultation.. They were telling me the plan for treatment and I was just in tears.
"I couldn't believe it was happening. I still can't get my head around the fact it's happened.
"With Covid-19 and everything that's happened, it has been such a blur. It's just weird.
"It's gone now, and it's done. I can build a bridge and get over it. But it was very overwhelming.”
Doctors removed the lump and a couple of lymph nodes from her armpit and sent them away for testing.
The results found that none of the lymph nodes had cancer present.
The doctor told Demelza that she was “lucky to have found what you did”.
On July 31, after two weeks of radiotherapy, Demelza completed her treatment - just in time for her 16th wedding anniversary.
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Now she is urging women to be thorough when checking their breasts and to look for signs of visual change, such as dents and dimpling, as well as feeling for lumps.
Demelza said: "Just check your boobs. It's so important that people don't leave it. It takes two minutes to check your boobs. People have just got to do it.
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"It can change your whole life. At the end of the day, you've got to do it.
"What's more important - life, or getting bad news where it could be terminal?"