Sarah Stirk: 'I had a mastectomy after mammogram revealed silent early breast cancer'

“I just had a bad feeling about it, a feeling of dread,” says the now 48-year-old. “I had to wait to get the biopsy then wait to get the result – it just seemed to go on for ages.”

Sarah’s instinct proved to be correct. She was given the results of the biopsy just days before Christmas last year – told she had Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS), an early breast cancer where cancer cells are found in the milk ducts.

‘In situ’ means that the cancer cells have not spread from the milk ducts, and so DCIS is classed as a non-invasive cancer.

But, there is a chance the cells can change and start to spread and so most people diagnosed are treated through surgery.

For Sarah, this meant a single mastectomy in January this year. “I knew when I got the news that it was going to mean awful major surgery and that was horrible,” she says. “It was complete shock but not, and praying it was going to be okay.”

“I’m really happy with the result,” she adds. “I was worried about the aesthetics…yes they look and feel different but I’m healthy and that’s all that matters.

“Hopefully the surgery has done the job. There’s a chance of recurrence but you can’t live your life worrying about it,” she says, explaining how she now has regular checks. “If there’s anything that comes up, I know I’m getting it super early.”

Like Sarah, many people are not experiencing symptoms when DCIS is diagnosed. It is often picked up in women when they have mammograms as part of the UK breast screening programme, offered to those aged 50 up to their 71st birthday.

Sarah is still not yet of age to be part of the routine screening programme and only went for a mam­mo­gram after a private spe­cial­ist she’d been seeing for per­i­meno­pause symp­toms suggested she had the scan before start­ing HRT.

“It was detected through the mammogram...Everyone says check yourself for lumps and bumps and I was but there weren’t any. There was nothing,” she says.

“So it’s like this silent (disease). And if DCIS is left untreated, by the time you get to 50, it could be too far gone...Earlier screening could pick up so many more cases of this.”

Sarah believes the routine mammogram screening age should be lowered to include women in their forties. "I kind of want to forget about all of this because it was such a nightmare time in my life and I want to move on,” she admits. “But also if I can make a difference and affect some change, then I want to.”

Breast cancer awareness charity CoppaFeel! says that more than half of all breast cancer cases in the UK occur in people outside the national screening age and that breast cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death in women under 50 .

In a blog post earlier this year, it said it did not, however, support a blanket lowering of the national breast cancer screening age to 40.

Instead, the charity is calling for a screening programme based on risk to replace the current age-based model, looking at factors such as family history, genetic factors and breast density to help find patients who may benefit from earlier or more frequent breast screening.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told The Yorkshire Post: “We are guided on all screening programmes by the independent UK National Screening Committee, which keeps all programmes under review based on the latest available evidence.

"In particular, the committee will be examining the findings of the AgeX research trial that is analysing the impact of extra screening for women between the ages of 47 and 49 years old. This is the biggest trial of its kind ever to be undertaken and is due to produce its first report later this year.

“In the meantime, we are taking decisive action to tackle breast cancer, with more women than ever coming forward for routine checks and nearly 20,000 cancers detected through NHS breast screening last year.”