I was told I was too young to have cancer, it had spread by the time I was diagnosed

A woman who said she was told by a GP she may be experiencing "medical anxiety" after finding a lump in her breast was later diagnosed with cancer.

Beth Jenkins, 42, visited a locum GP at her practice with concerns that a lump on her right breast had grown significantly and said she was told she was "too young to have breast cancer" and it may be linked to postnatal depression instead.

However, it was lobular breast cancer, external, with a 5cm (2in) tumour and the disease had spread to three lymph nodes.

Practice 1 Keir Hardie Health Park said it could not discuss individual cases but encouraged patients to "make a second appointment" if they had concerns about their health or care.

The mum-of-two, from Merthyr Tydfil, first noticed a "small pea-sized" lump in her breast in 2018, but, after an ultrasound, she was told it was likely glandular tissue and no biopsy was carried out.

A few years later she had given birth to her daughter Robyn and, while changing her nappy, Robyn accidentally kicked the right side of her chest.

It was then that Jenkins noticed the lump had become "massive", so she visited her GP practice in October 2024.

She said, being 40 at the time, she was told she was "too young" to have breast cancer and the lump might be linked to an infection or "medical anxiety" as she had postnatal depression, and was prescribed antibiotics.

She said: "I haven't got medical anxiety, otherwise I'd be up the hospital and doctors' every week."

She was referred to a breast clinic and diagnosed on 14 November 2024 - the cancer had spread to three lymph nodes by the time it was found.

"Me and my dad, we just sat in shock really. I didn't even cry, I didn't get upset," she said.

Despite the devastating news, Jenkins, a police officer, praised the specialist team, saying the consultant reassured her: "I promise you I will get rid of this."

At first, Jenkins had a mastectomy and initially told her eight-year-old daughter Fallon that she had a "boob job".

She laughed: "Her remark to me was, 'why did you just have the one boob done and not the other one'?"

Jenkins decided to tell Fallon she had cancer before starting chemotherapy and radiotherapy - which caused her to lose her hair.

She had further preventative treatment, but experienced serious complications including neutropenic sepsis, external.

"They said if I had gone there [to the hospital] 24 hours later, I wouldn't have survived," she said.