‘A dimple appeared in my left boob’: One woman’s tale of breast cancer



It was a simple enough tweet from a new Twitter account named My Left Boob. 

“A dimple appeared in my left boob not sure when. I’ve noticed it in the last few days. Googled! Now can feel lump. Dr’s appt at midday.”

From there, the story of Claire Warner’s 14mm grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma slowly unravels as you scroll. The 41-year-old mother of two spotted the dimple earlier in June but waited until the 30th to finally make an appointment to get it checked out. It was a tweet about another U.K. woman, Lisa Royle, who had also spotted a small dimple on her breast that helped set off the alarm bells. If she had not read that fateful tweet, she may have put off the exam even longer.

Lisa Royle, from Manchester, posted the picture on her Facebook page last week, and since then it has been shared more than 55,000 times and received more than 32,000 likes.

The image shows a slight dimple just visible on the underside of Mrs Royle's left breast. 

The 42-year-old, urged other women to take time out of their busy lives to check their breasts for the signs of cancer. She had a mastectomy a few days after this photo was taken.

Warner shared her own picture on Facebook along with a description of her diagnosis hoping to warn others and encourage them to check themselves.

“Ok, here goes,” she writes. “PLEASE READ and more importantly LOOK!”

She then goes on to describe a picture taken of her left breast. 

“This is a picture of my left boob. The small purplish bruise is where I had a biopsy taken. The minuscule dimple up and to the left of it is a rare and little-known symptom of BREAST CANCER.”

“I can’t feel the lump, even now that I know it’s there. I’m not ill. My only symptom is this dimple.”

After more than 9,000 shares, Warner pulled down the Facebook post and decided to share her journey through Twitter. Note: the original post can be viewed here. She also created the hashtag #CheckForTheDimple so others can share their stories.
Ms Warner may just have saved a few lives. Before reading this, I would not have been too alarmed at finding a dimple. We have been so programmed to fear only the 'dreaded' lump. Sister-friends get an exam and an annual or bi-annual mammogram.