Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Kilmarnock mum urges people to get checked early
She says it could have halved the length of time she was treated for.
A woman from Kilmarnock's urging people to get checked early if they spot signs of breast cancer, after she ignored the warnings for three months.
40-year old Helen Källström found a lump on her chest in October 2012, but only decided to go to the doctors to get it checked in January 2013, when she was diagnosed.
She's now hoping others learn from the mistakes she made.
The mum-of-two said: "If I had went before that, I could have stopped it.
"It was just fear - I knew in my heart what it was, because my grandmother had breast cancer.
"I didn't want someone else to say to me 'Yes Helen, it's breast cancer'.
"Mine was a fast growing cancer, so I'll never really know - but I still think if I had gone sooner, it wouldn't have gone into my lymph nodes so I wouldn't have lost a lymph nodes.
"I wouldn't have had to go through as much chemotherapy as I did - I think the way it would have worked my treatment would have been halved."
Helen insists that getting offered a mammogram at the age of 50 is far too late after she was diagnosed at 34-years old, and many other friends of hers were also diagnosed at earlier stages.
She said: "I've had friends that have had breast cancer.
"She fought and she fought and she fought just to get a mammogram and they kept saying 'you're too young'.
"And then she got the diagnosis - sadly she passed away."
Helen's hoping her story will encourage others to check regularly and get seen to if something doesn't feel right.
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