‘I told my husband I wouldn't be here in five years'

"Everything I'd read about lactation told me that lumps were normal," the devastated NSW mum said. "They even refused the biopsy, saying I was too young to have cancer."

Danna had just finished an evening breastfeed with her then one-year-old daughter, Frida, when she noticed a lump on her left breast.

“I felt it, and after everything I’d experienced with my previous child and all the lactation info

I’d read, I thought that lumps were a normal part of breastfeeding with hormonal changes,” the NSW Northern Rivers mum tells Kidspot.

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“I dismissed it and just forgot about it because life was already so busy with two toddlers, and self care was definitely at the bottom of my priorities back then.”

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Danna on her first day of chemotherapy. Picture: Supplied

Danna during her chemotherapy. Picture: Supplied

"It felt lumpy, like lots of marbles"

In the months that followed, Danna began to notice discharge from her left breast, the nipple becoming inverted, and her left arm feeling “numb and tingly”.

It was one evening, however, when then fiancé, Jonathan, realised Danna’s left breast felt very different than the other, that the mum-of-two knew she immediately had to find out why.

“When I felt around the breast, it felt very lumpy, like lots of marbles, much more than the first time, and it was tender near the armpit,” Danna, then aged 36, remembers.

“Alarm bells went off and I knew this wasn’t right.”

That week, Danna went for an ultrasound, but was sent away before she could have the biopsy that her GP had given a referral for.

“They said, we aren’t going to do a biopsy today because you’re too young to have breast cancer,” she recalls vividly.

“I was shocked and I cried.”

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Danna was also given radiotherapy during her treatment. Picture: Supplied

Ringing the bell after her last round of chemotherapy. Picture: Supplied

"I just wished it wasn't happening to me"

Desperate for answers, Danna sought out a new clinic the following day where her worst fears were confirmed. There was an eight-centimetre mass in her left breast and she was diagnosed with stage three, double positive breast cancer.

“I felt numb,” she says.

“On the way home, fear and anxiety kicked in. I was trying to think of a future where I’m still with my kids who were two and three at the time. I just wished it wasn’t happening to me.”

Danna went on to bravely endure chemotherapy, radiotherapy, a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction, as well as the removal of 22 lymph nodes.

RELATED: Mum was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer at 20 weeks pregnant

Danna with her now-husband Jonathan at Hamilton Island. Picture: Supplied

Danna and Jonathan with their children Sonny and Frida. Picture: Supplied

"There was so much fear"

It was during her treatment that Danna made a decision to prepare herself and her family for the worst.

“I said to Jonathan, I could die in five years’,” the 38-year-old remembers emotionally.

“So we packed up our life in Sydney and bought a house where he could afford to raise the kids without me and have the support of his family there. I really felt like I was going to die. There was so much fear.”

After their two-year nightmare, Danna and Jonathan were blessed to have multiple reasons to celebrate in May this year.

A scan showed no evidence of disease in Danna’s body, and the pair got to walk down the aisle in front of their children, Sonny, 6, and Frida, 4, after delaying their wedding due to the cancer diagnosis.

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Danna and Jonathan got married after she went into remission. Picture: Supplied

The family now lives in Rainbow Bay, QLD. Picture: Supplied

"I'm very positive about the future"

Despite Danna’s type of cancer being a high risk of recurrence, the fierce survivor is stronger than she has ever been - and vowing to never, ever give up.

“I honestly have no fear today,” she says, smiling.

“I’m not that shell of a woman I was after treatment. I’m very confident and very positive about the future.”

After struggling to find a way to tell her own children, Danna has penned a book, I Love Someone With Cancer that explores the emotional impact after a loved one is diagnosed with cancer. Self-published, it is available for pre-order and will be released on November 15, with 15 percent of book sales going to Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and its integrative oncology centre, the LivingRoom.

Originally published as ‘I told my husband I wouldn't be here in five years'