The breast cancer symptoms that WEREN'T lumps

Nipple discharge 

Emily first noticed a 'thick, milky' discharge coming from her nipple in June 2016.

'I had no idea what it was, I just knew it was clearly not normal,' she told FEMAIL. 'My GP checked it out but told me it was nothing - it disappeared after a week.'

A couple of months later Emily found a lump but didn't link it to the discharge.

She said: 'I waited because I really thought it would be nothing. Now I wish I pursued my worries [earlier]… being told I have stage 3 breast cancer was like being hit by a train. I was reeling for weeks before it finally sank in.' 

Emily told how she dreaded telling her husband, Greg, because he had lost his own mother to breast cancer. 'How could I tell him the love of his life has the same disease?,' she said. 

Not wanting to burden their young sons, the couple waited before telling them about their mother's diagnosis. 

'It was just before Christmas and, as we were decorating the tree, I told them in simple terms, leaving them to ask questions,' Emily said. 'Every day we would set aside time to talk about it – I involved them in everything that was happening.'

Treatment was gruelling and involved a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.