“Regardless of your age or gender, just check. On the first of the month, check your breasts. I want to shout it from rooftops. I call it self-love, do a little bit of self-love every month. It can save your life like it did me.”
Sarah Vaughan, from Newbridge, Co. Kildare was 31 when she felt pain in her armpit and a lump on her left breast.
“I was like, that’s a bit strange,” she says, “There’s something not right here.”
She thought the lump may have been a side effect from her period, so she waited about a week before going into her GP when the lump didn’t go away. Her GP referred her to a hospital in Dublin.
Due to her age, she wasn’t prioritised in the public system. But she was able to avail of private treatment with insurance, and it ultimately took ten weeks between her GP referral and being seen by a specialist.
“The longer this went on, the more anxious I became” she says.
When she was initially examined by a specialist, the specialist “was not happy” with the feel of the lump. Sarah was able to have a mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy completed on the same day.
Sarah was diagnosed with HER2-positive stage 2 breast cancer.
“I was honestly so shocked. I just remember her speaking, I didn’t take anything in that day. It was like the world had stopped,” she says. “Everything was moving around me, but I was just stuck in that one that place. I was absolutely devastated.
“I remember hearing the words but not processing or taking them in.”
When she started treatment, her team “threw everything but the kitchen sink” at her due to her age. She experienced six rounds of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, a double mastectomy, axillary clearance, and 14 rounds of Kadcyla, a treatment for breast cancer.
“I had to mentally prepare myself to get through it, I was just taking it as I went along. I just had to be in that moment.”
Sarah was in treatment until March of 2025, and she is now 33.
“You try and put on this brave front for everyone else even though inside you’re falling apart yourself.
“I felt really guilty for my family for putting them through this, even though I could never help what happened to me.”
Sarah’s mam was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2020, but contracted Covid in the hospital before she started treatment. She passed away in April 2020 at the age of 54.
Sarah says she felt a strong connection to her mam during her treatment.
“I always carried my mam with me. My mam never got a chance, so I will fight for her and me,” she says.
“I just always believe that she was on my side, for the chance that she never got."
“My journey is not only about surviving breast cancer — it’s also about honouring my mam and carrying her memory with me as I move forward with hope.”
Sarah received Irish Cancer Society leaflets from the hospital and availed of Irish Cancer Society -funded counselling.
“I felt so overwhelmed and didn’t know what was normal anymore, and they just took me in with open arms” she says. “I still go to this day. The support was amazing.”
Even with some support, Sarah still faced challenges with her accommodation and work. She cannot get insurance protection to get a mortgage, so her partner would need to apply for that protection without Sarah’s information.
“We’re in a predicament at the moment, because we’re both living at home. There’s ten other people in the house and we’ve nowhere else to turn to.
“We were saving, we had got engaged, we were putting plans in place, and then it was just stopped, you can’t go any further."
“It’s so hard to start over again. There are so many obstacles in place that you just feel like you can’t fully let go and live a normal life.”
Despite the hurdles associated with cancer, Sarah enjoys the little things. She says she has a “new lease of life”.
“Life is beautiful. Just focus on now and trust the process, you will get there."
“Right now, it feels like you can’t do it, everything is stopped, but this too will pass.
“It’s tough, but you are stronger than you know. Take it one day at a time, lean on those around you, and remember, you are never truly alone.
“Cancer took a lot, but it also showed me my resilience, my courage, and the power of love.”
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