SKIRL POWER

Julie thought chest bump was down to her playing the bagpipes

- BY ISOBEL WILLIAMS

A BREAST cancer survivor who thought an unusual bump on her chest was caused by playing the bagpipes is hoping to raise awareness that the disease doesn't always appear as a small hard lump.

Julie Brinklow first noticed the bulge at the end of 2022.

But the 52-year-old, of Ellon, Aberdeenshire, thought it was just a muscle that had become more prominent from her bagpiping.

Julie is Pipe Major of Grampian Police Pipe Band and the official piper for Aberdeen's Lord Provost.

She hadn't planned to get the issue checked but, after nagging from her partner, she visited the GP in January 2023.

After a referral to a breast specialist, she had a mammogram, ultrasound, biopsy and a tomography before being given her diagnosis in March.

The doctor said then that Julie had cancer, which would later be confirmed as grade two lobular breast cancer.