Amie Turner was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer at the age of 34. Photos / Amie Turner
Amie Turner was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer at the age of 34. Photos / Amie Turner
More than 3300 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in New Zealand each year - an average of nine women each day. Amie Turner was only 34 when she found out she had the disease.
She’d just bought a home with her then-fiancé in Perth, Australia and they’d begun trying for a baby when she suffered a devastating pregnancy loss. Six weeks later, she found a lump on one of her breasts and was diagnosed with triple-negative, grade three breast cancer.
Now on World Cancer Day, she’s sharing her story with the NZ Herald to warn other women to stay vigilant and advocate for themselves when it comes to their health.
Turner recalls sitting by a river with her best friend contemplating the fact she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer.
With no family history of the disease, she counts herself lucky the lump was taken seriously by her GP, who referred her for an ultrasound and then a biopsy.
“All they could really tell me was that it was very fast to grow and potentially spread, and that it had no hormone receptors,” the now 40-year-old veterinarian tells the Herald.
“I had thought because I had a miscarriage six weeks prior to the diagnosis that maybe the lump had fed on the pregnancy hormones, but obviously that wasn’t the case.”
After a “flurry” of scans, Turner delayed her treatment by a month to undergo fertility preservation measures, and by the time she started chemotherapy, the tumour was visibly “poking out”. Five months of “hardcore” treatment followed, as well as surgery to remove the lump and seven lymph nodes, and radiation “as an insurance policy”.
Through it all, Turner maintained a matter-of-fact attitude to her disease, even jokingly naming her tumour “Larry”.
“Larry was like four and a half by three and a half centimetres, so I called him my glorified chicken nugget of a tumour,” she recalls almost affectionately.
The treatments were successful and she’s now been cancer-free for five years.
But during her treatment, her relationship with her fiancé ended. Over Christmas 2018, she lost her father to vascular dementia. And heartbreakingly, radiation and chemotherapy left her unable to have children in the future.
“Treatment wasn’t as hard as some of the other emotional things happening at the same time,” she reflects, adding, “Going through cancer changes who you are.
Turner is passionate about women advocating for their own health. Photo / Amie Turner
“You are in a fight for your life. And if you’re lucky enough to leave that fight in a positive way, and you get to move on, part of you just wants to go back to where you were, but you never can.”
She now lives with chronic pain and fatigue due to nerve damage, and has to plan ahead to ensure she has energy for each day.
Having returned to New Zealand in 2022, she still works full-time as a vet, “which I absolutely love”, she says.
“[But] if I want to go to a concert, for example, I used to be able to just go to a concert — now I have to rest the day leading up to the concert, make sure I’m not working the next day so I can recover.”
On any given day she can wake up without the energy to get out of bed, or have such debilitating joint pain that climbing the stairs leaves her in tears.
“So as much as I’m grateful to be here, I’ve still got challenges,” she says — and she’s not alone.
According to Breastcancer.org, about 80 per cent of women who survive breast cancer experience post-traumatic stress disorder — whether that’s anxiety about yearly mammograms or survivor’s guilt.
That’s something Turner experienced firsthand.
“I made a really close friend that was my age, we had the same oncologist during our treatment. We were told we had no evidence of disease at the same time. And then six months later, she was rediagnosed — stage 4 — and then a year later she died the day after my birthday, and the survivor’s guilt is real.
Turner lives with chronic pain and fatigue as a result of her treatment for cancer. Photo / Amie Turner
“And then you’ve got to get up and go every day, knowing that someone you’re really close to and you love a lot is no longer there, from a very similar disease.”
And while she believes there are improvements to be made to our health system, especially for chronically ill people, she adds, “I’m much luckier to be in Australia or New Zealand than other parts of the world where I could be going bankrupt to pay for chemo or not have access to those kinds of treatments at all.”
Looking back on her experience, she wants to urge others to advocate for themselves when it comes to their health.
“I’d hear stories about especially younger patients that weren’t taken seriously when they initially found a lump, because they had no family history — ‘you’re too young to have cancer’,” she points out.
“So I would always push for people to know what’s normal for them.
“The average life expectancy for someone with my type of breast cancer — triple negative — that doesn’t pursue treatment is about 12 months because of how aggressive it is,” Turner explains, noting that if she hadn’t pushed to get checked, she wouldn’t be here today.
“Life is crazy and busy and stressful, but you have to be your own best advocate when it comes to your health, because no one’s ever going to fight as hard for your life as you will.
“So you have to advocate for yourself, and just by knowing what’s normal for you and getting checked when something’s outside of those normal parameters, it could save your life.”
In New Zealand, more women are diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a symptom such as a lump than by a routine mammogram, according to the Breast Cancer Foundation NZ.
It’s recommended to do regular self-checks from the age of 20.
“Not so much checking for breast cancer, but looking to understand what your normal breast tissue is like, so you’re really confident if you can see a change,” Breast Cancer Foundation lead nurse Natalie James explains.
Breast Cancer Foundation lead nurse Natalie James says it's important to check your breasts regularly and to see your doctor if you have any concerns. Photo / Breast Cancer Foundation
“When you’re feeling breast tissue, you’re looking for any changes in the tissue that don’t feel quite right or don’t feel the same as your other breast.”
It’s important to look as well as feel for any changes such as a rash, dimpling or puckering, she adds.
If you don’t feel comfortable going to the doctor, if cost is a barrier or if you’re simply nervous about the results, James suggests telling a family member or friend.
“They’re the ones that will connect you to healthcare and make sure that you get the right support. There’s a quick and efficient diagnostic pathway, so you’re not left worried and waiting, and neither are your family,” she adds.
“Breast cancer is curable if it’s diagnosed early and it’s not too big before it presents.”
You can find information about breast health, how to self-check and the signs and symptoms of breast cancer on the Breast Cancer Foundation website. For free advice and support, you can call a specialist nurse on 0800 BC NURSE (O800 226 8773).
