A woman from Belfast, Northern Ireland, began noticing unexplained bruises and extreme fatigue.
Two months later she found a lump.
Ariba Karim, 32, told Newsweek she felt a stabbing pain in her right breast, which would occur daily.
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"It initially would only last 30 seconds to a minute, but one day it went on for half an hour," Karim said. "I used to palpate the area and felt no lump. I told my friends and we thought it could have just been hormonal."
Karim went a month without pain and didn't think much of it until she started noticing unexplained bruising and needing two-hour naps.
"[I] would feel like I’d been hit by a bus when I woke up," Karim said.
Then she found a lump in her right breast.
Karim booked a doctor's appointment and sought help from a private GP.
"He examined the area and told me he wasn’t worried because I was under 40," Karim explained. "That was his only reason for not suspecting cancer. I cried at this appointment and told him I was worried and he asked me, why? I then asked him, why not?"
She was prescribed antibiotics and informed that an urgent referral to the National Health Service (NHS) would take 30 to 40 weeks.
Concerned, Karim asked the GP if she could have a referral letter to visit a private clinic instead.
At the Ulster Independent Clinic in Belfast, Karim underwent an ultrasound and biopsies.
"I won’t ever forget the consultant who took the ultrasound and how her face changed when she started it," she said. "She kept scanning the area and I could see the concern on her face."
After carrying out a mammogram and taking biopsies from her breast and armpit, doctors said the case appeared unusual and that they would need to wait for the results before reaching a diagnosis.
The week of her follow-up appointment, Karim was told to bring someone with her to receive the test results.
Still, she told herself it wouldn't be the worst-case scenario she had imagined.
"I remember the breast consultant looking me in the eye when I sat down and he told me, 'I’m really sorry, we did find cancer,'" Karim said. "I looked at him in disgust, as if he had told me my dog was ugly. I just couldn’t believe what he had said. I remember the room was silent for a while."
Karim was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer, and doctors told her it was an aggressive grade 3 tumor.
Fortunately, further testing suggested the disease had not spread to her lymph nodes, which were inflamed but showed no signs of cancer.
An MRI later also revealed the lump measured just under two inches and identified two additional areas in her breast that doctors considered suspicious and planned to monitor closely.
Karim is now undergoing chemotherapy. She also documents her journey on social media (@that.matchagirl) to make more women aware of breast cancer symptoms.
Since sharing her story online, Karim said she has been left in "awe" over how many women have had similar experiences.
If something doesn't feel right, her advice is to advocate for yourself.
"You will never regret pushing to get something double-checked," Karim said. "It could save your life."
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Charlotte Nisbet and Paul Donnelley.