A student has told how she was forced to undergo a mastectomy at only 19 - two years after her doctor failed to spot cancer in her breast, The Daily Mail reported on Thursday.
Morag McTiernan, who was 17 when she first suffered symptoms, believes her age was the reason her doctor did not suspect the disease was their cause.
But McTiernan, now 21, said she might have been able to keep her breast if the disease had been spotted sooner, and has now spoken out to warn other young girls. She told the Daily Mail: "I can't help but think that if I had been an older lady who had the same symptoms my GP would have thought about cancer."
McTiernan first went to the doctor in 2010 because of pain in her right breast and discharge, but was told that it was just an infection of the milk duct. She added that there were two years between the pain starting and eventually being diagnosed with cancer.
The pain became so severe that the teen, who was studying performing arts and was a ballerina and a contemporary dancer at the time, wanted to get a second opinion.
"'I couldn't dance and I kept just thinking, they said this was normal, it's nothing serious. But I was wrong," McTiernan told The Daily Mail.
She was told she had breast cancer two days after undergoing tests at a special breast clinic. She said she felt like she should have been more shocked, but was kind of expecting it, knowing something was very wrong. After being transferred to a teenage lumpectomy clinic, she was told the cancer was bigger than expected and had to undergo a mastectomy.
The operation did take away the cancer and that's what's important.
"I have had the breast reconstructed and had both things done during one operation so when I woke up it was all done,"McTiernan said.
The teen has fully recovered from her surgery and has undergone radiotherapy for the cancer and hormone treatment.
