{"id":104522,"date":"2025-10-06T00:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T00:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/104522\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T00:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T00:22:08","slug":"31-year-old-says-breast-cancer-is-not-just-an-older-womans-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/104522\/","title":{"rendered":"31-year-old says breast cancer is not just an older woman’s disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 29, Niamh Noonan\u2019s life seemed rosy, she had just moved in with her boyfriend and work was going well, but she was unaware breast cancer was around the corner.<\/p>\n

Now 31 and going through treatment, she wants women and doctors to realise breast cancer is not only an older woman\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

She struggled to get a diagnosis despite going to her \u201camazing\u201d GP in April 2023 with concerns about \u201clittle pea sized lumps\u201d in one breast.<\/p>\n

She was seen at a breast clinic but recalls: \u201cI think it was my age, they said I was too young, it\u2019s probably just thick breast tissue is what they said.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

They did a physical examination but no ultrasound.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis infuriates me, because cancer doesn\u2019t discriminate. I know people just 17 getting diagnosed with breast cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But I\u2019ll never know if that was the first breast cancer because there was no ultrasound done,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Within six months she had a \u201cgolf-ball sized lump\u201d in her armpit.<\/p>\n

Her GP sent an urgent referral which should lead to an appointment in two weeks.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, it came 11 weeks later in February 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen on the third of March I was diagnosed,\u201d she said, noting this was the day after she turned 30.<\/p>\n

It was stage 3, triple positive, and had spread to her lymph nodes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never know but I could have maybe avoided chemotherapy or only have a lumpectomy. They were only pea-sized lumps at first but the tumour in my armpit was massive by then,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tough conversations about children were had with her partner.<\/p>\n

Some cancers are influenced by the hormone oestrogen. So treatment involves suppressing this and putting women into medical menopause.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy oncologist said my tumours were really aggressive, so I didn\u2019t have time to freeze my eggs,\u201d Ms Noonan said.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThe plan is five years on the treatment that I\u2019m on, so I\u2019m on injections to put my ovaries to sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t had a period in a year and a half, getting the hot flushes at 30 is crazy, I get eight to 10 hot flushes a day. That\u2019s horrendous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now she is preparing for an eight-hour surgery to remove her other breast and reconstructive work. She is doing this after being told her cancer could recur as she is so young.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why now more than ever, I think it\u2019s so important for young women especially, to check your breasts and know the signs and symptoms because it can happen to anyone, cancer does not care,\u201d she urged.<\/p>\n

\"NiamhNiamh Noonan and Fiona Cowman at the Mayson Hotel. Picture: Marc O’Sullivan<\/p>\n

She finds it hard at times to look at her scar but said: “It\u2019s a victory scar, not a victim scar, that\u2019s how I see it now.”<\/p>\n

Niamh is now featuring with other women and one man in a new campaign from Breast Cancer Ireland, launching Monday.<\/p>\n

In Ireland, one in seven women will get breast cancer and one in 738 men.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dara McDonagh said: \u201cI never thought my war wound would be a mastectomy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Breast Cancer Ireland CEO Aisling Hurley said: \u201cIt is really really inspiring to think these survivors are leading this campaign because they want to save the lives of others.\u201d The charity surveyed about 1,000 people last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was really astonishing for me is that less than one-third were checking themselves on a regular basis. They weren\u2019t doing it monthly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were checking haphazardly; they thought breast cancer was a lump or maybe swelling on the arm. They didn\u2019t know the other six symptoms.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The eight signs also include thickening, changes in size or shape, dimpling of the skin, changes to the nipple, rash, and pain.<\/p>\n

She urged anyone whose relative had breast cancer to get checked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cork University Hospital offers a Breast Family History Service as do other hospitals.<\/p>\n

The charity focuses heavily on research and awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have coordinators out on the road covering Munster, Leinster, Connaught who are delivering free breast health sessions to schools and community or health groups,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 29, Niamh Noonan\u2019s life seemed rosy, she had just moved in with her boyfriend and work was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[4139,18,135,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-104522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-breast-cancer","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}