When Nurhana Abdul Ghani noticed a lump on her right breast in 2017 during a routine self-check, the then-33-year-old didn’t worry too much and prayed that it wasn’t cancerous. After all, when she was 16, she’d found a lump too, in her left breast, but doctors told her it was benign and promptly removed it.
Over the next three months, when the lump in her right breast grew bigger, Nurhana sensed it might be serious. A biopsy, ultrasound and mammogram confirmed her worst fear – she had breast cancer.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Nurhana shares. “My whole world felt like it was caving in. So many feelings hit me at once: fear, anxiety, sadness and shock. All I could think about were my kids, who were nine years old and two years old at the time. I wondered if I would be around to see them grow up.”
Nurhana was diagnosed with Stage 2A cancer in September 2017. Her oncologist also checked her lymph nodes to make sure the cancer hadn’t spread; luckily, it had not.