Woman who was denied mammogram for being 'too young' now battling cancer and early menopause

A woman is now battling cancer after being told she was too young to get a mammogram.

When 35-year-old Philecia Labounty discovered a suspicious lump on her chest after feeling discomfort, she did the responsible thing and went to get it checked out.

Doctors told her they thought it was a benign cyst, though she was concerned that it was actually something more serious than that.

Told she was 'too young' and 'too healthy' to need a mammogram to double check the lump was what doctors diagnosed it as, she unknowingly went home with cancer.

Over the next few months Labounty could feel the lump growing further and went back to the doctors to try and get a clearer view to what this supposed 'benign cyst' really was.

That's when she got the awful news that she in fact had stage four breast cancer which had gone undiagnosed for months after she'd been dismissed as too young to need a mammogram.

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Sadly, it appears as though Philiecia's story is not a unique one as there have been other women who were shocked to discover they had cancer after doctors told them they were too young.

Melissa Fisher was told she 'had nothing to worry about' as she was just 27 when she discovered a lump in her breast, being advised that it was 'definitely not cancer'.

However, she was later diagnosed with breast cancer, which went into remission after a series of chemotherapy treatments.

She urged people to be their own 'biggest advocate' and be persistent about health concerns.

29-year-old Lindsey Gritton was initially misdiagnosed as having a clogged milk duct after she felt a burning pain, but she was sure something was wrong and pushed for further tests which then revealed she had stage four cancer.

After treatment her cancer was found to have largely been fought off and she only recently got the all clear signal to tell her she was cancer free.

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Sadly not every story has the same ending.

In 2016, Leonie Largue died of breast cancer two years after going to the doctors when she discovered a small lump in her breast.

At the time she was told it was a small lymph gland but going back to the doctors 17 months later they found that another mass had formed.

She went into treatment but sadly died a year after her diagnosis, leaving behind her husband John and two children.

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker