Sharon Gaffka has revealed she had a cancer scare at the age of 19, after finding a “really painful” lump between her breast and underarm.
In a new interview with The Sun, the 2021 Love Island star recalled finding the lump around the same time her mother Linda was finishing treatment for cancer.
The 26-year-old said: “My mum had cancer, and you know, I had my own breast cancer scare when I was 19.”
“[It’s] really important [for me] to raise awareness because if I didn’t know what to look for, and I didn’t know what was abnormal or normal for me, then had it been something more sinister than it ended up being, I could have been in a lot of trouble because I couldn’t spot the signs early,” she explained.
“I think people have said that with breast cancer, your partner tends to find it before you do, just because they’re paying more attention. I find that young women or anybody, there’s a stigma about checking your chest or some who find it weird. So I want to take that stigma away.”
“I remember feeling discomfort in my right breast between my breast and my underarm. I didn’t know that that was a potential spot. People automatically assume that breast cancer is literally in breast tissue, as opposed to like maybe in your collarbones, or in your underarms.”
Sharon continued: “I basically had a solid lump of tissue, and it was really painful, even just to move around in general life.”
“Yeah you know, I think I found it pretty much the same time that my mum was finishing her treatment. So knowing how quickly my mum caught on that she wasn’t well, kind of pushed me to go check myself, so I went to a GP pretty quickly.”
“I was very lucky to find that it was just it was basically like scar tissue, I’ve injured myself and my body was trying to fix it. If I didn’t know that, that was a part of my body that could potentially have breast cancer.”
The reality star revealed that their is a history of cancer in her family.
She said: “I think it’s quite common knowledge that quite a few members of my family have had cancer or died from cancer in my lifetime, including both my grandparents.”
“I think three out of four of my grandparents had cancer.”
Read more: How to check your breasts.Â
