Isla first went to the GP in July 2022 with a lump in her breast, but she was told it was likely to be benign and caused by hormonal changes. "She was told it was hormonal - a fibroadenoma - and she would grow out of it," Isla's father Mark said. Two years later, Isla became ill and was taken to hospital, where doctors suspected she had cancer and made an urgent referral for biopsies.
Jessica Mason went back and forth to her GP and hospital with swelling, bleeding and pain in her vagina but says she was "fobbed off" before "begging" for a scan which revealed cancer requiring urgent treatment. The 44-year-old believes she was only referred for an MRI because she "broke down in tears" to a doctor, adding: "I knew there was something wrong."
KZ Barton will never forget the night in her early 20s when searing abdominal pain landed her in hospital. Every signal from her body was telling her something was extremely wrong. When you experience pain that severe and you don't understand it, you feel like you're dying, the Melbourne-based teacher and author says. But despite her pain being without a doubt worse than unmedicated childbirth, Barton says.