A mum who mistook a painless armpit lump for early signs of flu when showering was horrified when it turned out she had breast cancer . Kelly Bawcombe was washing herself in the shower when she felt a small, grape-sized lump in her right armpit. The 39-year-old believed the mass to be inflamed lymph nodes as a sign of her being 'under the weather ' and took some vitamins that night to help boost her immune system.
But two weeks later the lump had grown to the size of a golf ball - prompting Kelly to visit her GP for further investigation. There, she was immediately referred to the breast clinic where she had a mammogram and underwent two biopsies. Two days later, Kelly was told she had triple negative breast cancer that had spread to her bones and liver.
The mum-of-one said since finding the lump, she had no symptoms in the months leading up to her diagnosis - and believed the armpit lump she found in in March to merely be a flu symptom. Now, Kelly hopes to see her seven-year-old daughter Megan grow up despite being told she has incurable cancer. Kelly, from Watford, Hertfordshire, said: "As I was showering myself, I noticed a rubbery sort of lump in my right armpit where you would shave.
It was around the size of a grape, it wasn't painful to touch at all. "I immediately thought 'oh I must be under the weather' and I just had raised lymph nodes. I thought I was just coming down with something like a virus or a flu.
I decided to take some vitamin C and vitamin D in case I was.
