A WOMAN’S life was saved after her fake tan revealed she had cancer.
Vicky Popham, 45, decided to cheer herself up ahead of her birthday in June 2020 and applied the bronzing product.
Vicky Popham says fake tan (pictured) saved her life
What was a normal tanning session turned into a health battle
As she swept the tanning mousse across her right breast, she was stunned to discover a hard £2 coin-sized lump.
The “hard and dense” lump turned out to be breast cancer, at the age of 43.
Vicky is sharing her ordeal to urge people to regularly check themselves, at least once a month.
The foster placement support worker, from Lincoln, Lincolnshire, said: “Putting fake tan on saved my life.
“I know it sounds ridiculous fake tanning your boobs when no-one’s going to see them but I just slapped it all on and thank god I did.
“I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t put that fake tan on.
“I found something that wasn’t quite normal, it was a hard lump on the right side of my right breast.”
Vicky contacted her doctor to rule out anything serious and was given an appointment that afternoon [June 12th].
She said: “I didn’t think anything of it, I genuinely thought it was connected to my periods.
“I went to the doctors thinking ‘it’ll be alright it’ll just be something connected to my hormones’ then he said he was going to refer me to the breast clinic to get it checked out.”
Vicky’s GP referred her to Lincoln County Hospital’s breast clinic on July 7th.
After two mammograms, a biopsy and a scan, doctors discovered a 35mm grade 3 mixed carcinoma hiding behind the lump of dense tissue Vicky felt, meaning she had breast cancer.
Vicky said: “I was sitting on my own in a little room and I genuinely didn’t think anything of it.
“That’s where they told me ‘we’ve found some cancer‘. I didn’t cry, I didn’t have any emotion.
“I almost didn’t believe it. I was massively in denial, I think I still am in denial, you don’t believe it’s happening to you.”
‘Ive never been so scared’
On August 12, 2020, Vicky went to Grantham Hospital where she underwent a four-hour operation to remove the lump, surrounding tissue and check her lymph nodes.
Vicky then underwent six gruelling rounds of chemotherapy, starting in November 2020, in which she lost her luscious blonde locks.
She said: “While Boris [Johnson] was having a party, I was walking down to that chemotherapy unit on my own, I’ve never been so scared.
“I was known for being a blonde bombshell. I lost my hair between the first and second session, it was quite quick. I miss it.”
Her last chemo was on Christmas Eve where she dressed as an elf, before having 18 rounds of radiotherapy.
Although cancer-free, Vicky needs further surgery because she has been found to carry an altered BRCA2 gene.
Having a variant BRCA gene increases a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer, and therefore Vicky faces a double mastectomy in the near future to reduce the risk of the cancer returning.
Vicky said: “What are you going to do? Have cancer or have no boobs? You’re going to have no boobs, it’s a no-brainer.
“When you think you’ve got rid of all the cancer and then two years down the line when normal life resumes to be told that the risk of it coming back is very high, it’s a massive kick in the teeth.”
Vicky is now urging people to undertake regular self-examinations so if they experience any changes they can get medical treatment straight away.
Vicky said: “I wasn’t doing breast checks, I thought this kind of thing only happen to people that were over 50 and in the menopause.
“I didn’t think anything of it at 43, I was living my best life.
“I would advise people to check every month and if you notice anything different go and get it checked out straight away.
“You can’t wait, if I’d ignored that and done nothing about it I could have been stage 4 and that would have been a very different story.”
Vicky lost her hair during chemotherapy, which started in November 2020
Vicky is urging other women to look for breast cancer symptoms at least once a month
