’Trust your intuition’: How listening to her body saved mum’s life

Survival was non-negotiable for Claire after she became a mother and while she’s been to hell and back, she always looks for the silver lining.

Blush vice-president and breast cancer survivor Claire Howden has opened up about her personal experience and encourages everyone to get regular checks after it saved her life, Thursday, October 28, 2021. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Survival was non-negotiable for Claire Howden after she became a mother and while she’s been to hell and back, this inspiring figure is always looking for the silver lining.

The National Breast Cancer Foundation states one in seven women are diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime.

Blush vice-president and breast cancer survivor Claire Howden has opened up about her personal experience and encourages everyone to get regular checks after it saved her life, Thursday, October 28, 2021. Picture: Kevin Farmer

But when Claire Howden lost her grandmother to it, she never imagined she, along with her mum and sister would receive the same diagnosis years later.

Giving birth to her only child less than two years before she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Ms Howden credits her intuition, among many people, for her survival.

While she had no apparent symptoms, the mother-of-one decided to get her breasts checked, after her mum was rushed to hospital to have a bilateral mastectomy months prior.

Despite her young age, Ms Howden’s family history was taken into consideration and with good reason, as doctors found an abnormal amount of calcification in her left breast.

Just one week before Mother’s Day, she received the biopsy results that most people dread but almost never anticipate hearing – it was cancer.

Blush vice-president and breast cancer survivor Claire Howden has opened up about her personal experience and encourages everyone to get regular checks after it saved her life, Thursday, October 28, 2021. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Spending Mother’s Day with her young son and husband, trying to distract herself, Ms Howden had a left mastectomy the following day, before undergoing six long months of chemotherapy.

But more challenges laid ahead when it was revealed that she carried a HER-2 gene mutation, which causes cancer cells to grow much more rapidly.

As a result, Ms Howden made the proactive but heartbreaking decision to get a right mastectomy and full hysterectomy.

And within the past 12 months, her sister who is eight years older and has been having regular mammograms since she was 40, also discovered she too had breast cancer and also had a full mastectomy.

Blush vice-president and breast cancer survivor Claire Howden has opened up about her personal experience and encourages everyone to get regular checks after it saved her life, Thursday, October 28, 2021. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“While it seems very tragic that this has happened to the three of us, plus grandma who passed away at 43, I actually think we’re incredibly blessed because we were diagnosed early so our prognosis is very good,” Ms Howden said.

“My son who is now six sometimes asks me why my boobs aren’t like everyone else’s and I tell him they were making me sick, so the doctor took them away.”

Ms Howden became the vice-president of Blush Cancer Care, hoping to pay it forward after the incredible support she received from the not-for-profit during own her treatment.

Ms Howden said Covid-19 has resulted in less people getting checked, which was concerning as it the more time goes on, the more cancer can advance.

Now aged 42 and cancer-free, she is encouraging everyone to listen to their bodies and get regular checks, after it saved her life.

“I hope it won’t reoccur, but it’s always in the back of my mind that it might, so my approach is to embrace what’s going on now instead of thinking about what may happen in the future,” she said.

“Trust your intuition – it doesn’t matter how many times you present to your doctor and it’s just a cyst, because the one time you don’t, it may just be more.”

October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month but the public is encouraged to get checked all year long.