Super-fit gym manager diagnosed with breast cancer at 24 warns she didn’t have a single warning sign
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Super-fit gym manager diagnosed with breast cancer at 24 warns she didn’t have a single warning sign
At 24, Paige Crossingham looked the very picture of health.
The manager of an F45 fitness studio on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland exercised alongside her clients every day and spent weekends swimming in the ocean and hiking the challenging trails of her home state with her friends and partner.
So when she felt a small, hard lump in her right breast while undressing for bed on Saturday, December 2, 2019, she made an appointment with her GP to rule out anything sinister, but wasn’t overly concerned. Neither was her doctor.
Multiple tests and five weeks later on Wednesday, January 8, 2020, she received the devastating news that stage two triple negative breast cancer was growing inside her chest, four months shy of her 25th birthday.
Ms Crossingham told Daily Mail Australia she feels ‘very, very lucky’ to have noticed the lump because she was ‘as fit as she had ever been’ and didn’t experience any symptoms commonly associated with the disease like pain, fatigue or leaking breasts,
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At 24, Queensland gym manager Paige Crossingham looked the very picture of health. She is pictured on December 15, 2019.
But five weeks after discovering a lump in her right breast while getting ready for bed on December 2, she was diagnosed with rapidly growing, stage two triple negative breast cancer. Ms Crossingham is pictured here on March 22, 2020.
‘I felt perfectly normal. I had no fatigue, no pain, no sickness,’ she said.
Always vigilant about her health, Ms Crossingham saw a doctor on Monday, December 4 who believed it was likely to be a cyst but sent her for an ultrasound just in case.
When the scan revealed a ‘suspicious’ mass, doctors performed a series of tests before a biopsy finally confirmed the lump to be triple negative breast cancer.
‘Being fit and healthy, exercising daily, eating healthy, being a non-smoker, being young and having no known family history, I just couldn’t understand how it was happening to me,’ she said.
Ms Crossingham was diagnosed on the day of her mother and partner Nick’s birthdays.
‘Every appointment they said ‘you’re so young, we’re just checking to be sure, you’ll be fine”. ‘You’ll be fine’ was the most common phrase I heard from everyone I encountered,’ she said.
‘Looking back, even I didn’t expect it to be what it was. I didn’t think it could be cancer.’
Ms Crossingham was diagnosed on Wednesday, January 8, 2020 – the day of her mother and partner Nick’s birthdays. She and Nick are pictured together on December 31, 2019, a little over a week before her diagnosis.
Triple negative breast cancer is a rapidly growing form of breast cancer which accounts for roughly 15 percent of breast cancers worldwide.
Roughly 18,000 Australian women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, 2,700 of whom have triple negative breast cancer.
It is different to other forms of breast cancer because it doesn’t possess the three receptors typically found in breast cells – oestrogen, progesterone and HER2 – which renders typical cancer treatments ineffective against it.
I didn’t think it could be cancer…I couldn’t believe this was happening to me.
Paige Crossingham, 24
People with oestrogen or progesterone receptor positive breast cancer are usually treated with tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor, while people with HER2 positive breast cancer take a drug called Herceptin.
Triple negative breast cancer generally responds well to chemotherapy followed by a removal of one breast, followed by radiotherapy, or both breasts without any further treatment.
The early symptoms most triple negative breast cancer sufferers experience are few and easy to miss, which makes it difficult to spot and often leads to a delayed diagnosis.
The only warning signs most people experience are a small, hard lump in the breast, and occasionally breast tenderness or a nipple that turns inwards which only occurs in some cases.
If detected early, the chance of successful treatment and long-term survival is excellent, so long as the cancer has not spread to other parts of the body.
Ms Crossingham was ‘as fit as she had ever been’ and didn’t initially suspect she could be suffering from cancer
She believes breast screening should be available to the immediate family of anyone who is diagnosed with cancer, irrespective of their age. She is pictured with her mother and sister on February 28, 2020.
Ms Crossingham started treatment with rounds of chemotherapy four weeks after her diagnosis on Monday, February 10.
Before doing so, she underwent IVF to increase her chances of becoming a mother in the future. The process was successful, but she still hopes to become pregnant naturally and thus never need the eggs that were removed.
In anticipation of losing her hair in her battle against the disease, Ms Crossingham took matters into her own hands and defiantly shaved the silken, honey tresses that flowed down below her chest.
‘Losing my hair was probably the biggest hurdle I faced initially. I’ve always had long, blonde hair and I just couldn’t imagine myself without it,’ she said.
But after speaking to her nurse, she was adamant about taking a razor to her head before her hair fell out by itself.
‘She told me having cancer takes away a lot of the control that you had over your life. She encouraged me to take back some of that control by getting rid of it myself.
‘I couldn’t let cancer take it from me. The thought of losing it was worse than actually doing it. I’m rocking the ‘egg’ look, these days!’ she laughed.
In anticipation of losing her hair in her battle against the disease, Ms Crossingham took matters into her own hands and defiantly shaved the silken, honey tresses that flowed down below her chest. She is pictured with a colleague after shaving her head on March 14, 2020.
Ms Crossingham has nine weeks left of chemo before she must decide between a lumpectomy – a partial removal of breast tissue – followed by a course of radiotherapy, or a double mastectomy which would remove both her breasts and eliminate the need for further treatment.
‘I don’t ever want to go through this again if the mastectomy is what’s going to give me the best chance of avoiding cancer for the rest of my life, then I’m going to do that,’ she said.
An avid writer, Ms Crossingham started a blog to share her experience and support other young women like her along their cancer journeys.
She believes breast screening should be available to the immediate family of anyone who is diagnosed with cancer, irrespective of their age, and hopes to see more awareness campaigns being funded by the government, something she feels is all too lacking in Australia.
‘Everyone told me “You’ll be fine” because even they couldn’t believe a 24-year-old could have cancer, but the fact is they can and they need more support. Breast cancer doesn’t discriminate,’ she said.
She plans for build a support group where young people can share their journeys and support each other during what is often an overwhelmingly lonely time.
For support about breast cancer, call Breast Cancer Network Australia on 1800 500 258 or visit the website at www.bcna.org.au.
Source: Sound Health and Lasting Wealth
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