'I was told I was too young for breast cancer'

A mum diagnosed with breast cancer has spoken of how a doctor initially said she couldn't have the disease as she was only 40: Taite Johnson reports...

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HAVING a baby is supposed to be a joyous occasion, but for Beth Jenkins it brought a world of pain she never expected.

While 40-year-old Beth had the delight of welcoming her second daughter Robyn, she believes her pregnancy caused her to develop breast cancer, which was not initially spotted by a doctor who told her she was “too young” to have it.

Knowing that cancer can happen to anyone of any age, and sticking with her intuition when she found a lump in her breast, Beth fought for answers.

In 2018, Beth, from Merthyr Tydfil, found a lump in her breast that was determined to be a fat tissue lump.

She went on to give birth to her daughter Robyn in 2023.

As she was set to return to work the following year, she noticed the lump in her breast had grown and become painful after her daughter had kicked her in the chest.

After being examined by a doctor, she was told it was just an infection and that she was “too young to have breast cancer”. Beth felt this diagnosis could be wrong and more needed to be done to determine what the lump was.