Early detection saved mom after breast cancer diagnosis

What started as an ordinary morning shower before work turned into a nightmare for schoolteacher Ken's Pinnock-Powell when she felt a tiny lump in her breast that would later be diagnosed as Stage One breast cancer.

The mother of two is now sharing her story in the hope that other women will pay closer attention to their bodies and seek medical help at the first sign that something is wrong.

“Sometimes, as mothers and wives, we pay more attention to other people and we rush when it comes to us and our body. I would say slow down, observe your body each day, love your body each day, so that you can see the changes,” she said.

Breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women worldwide, with an estimated 2.4 million new cases diagnosed in 2024 and about 694,000 deaths globally. The World Health Organization also notes that roughly 80 per cent of cases occur in women with no specific risk factors other than age and sex. In Jamaica, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, with 1,310 new breast cancer cases and 695 deaths recorded in 2024.

Pinnock-Powell told THE STAR that the warning sign appeared without notice.

“Two years ago, I was actually showering to go to work and I felt a strange thing, a lump and I was like ‘I didn’t feel this two days or a day ago’. Sso I called my husband in the shower and asked him and he was like ‘yes’. So right away thought started to flood my brain, because, once we hear the world lump, we know what’s associated with,” she recalled.

Although the lump was small, she felt something was wrong and decided to seek medical attention.

“I couldn’t function so went to the general practitioner and they were like, ‘You are okay, you are too young to get cancer’. However, they got a second opinion, because, even though they said it wasn’t cancer, they saw I was still worried. So they fact-tracked me to the breast clinic.”

That referral triggered what she describes as one of the most terrifying days of her life.

After arriving at the clinic around 2 p.m., she underwent a whirlwind of medical tests that stretched into the evening.

“When the doctors came back for me to do the ultrasound, I saw the expression on her face and I was like, is everything okay? And she was like, no, this doesn’t look good ... . It was devastating. I started crying.”

Over the next four hours, doctors performed mammograms, ultrasounds and, eventually, a biopsy.

The emotional burden was compounded by the fact that her mother-in-law was simultaneously battling another form of cancer, placing additional strain on her husband and family.

The official diagnosis came on November 29: Stage One breast cancer.

“Treatment for me was about 12 rounds of chemotherapy. We did about 10 sessions of radiation. And we did a next five rounds of immunotherapy.”

Thankfully, early detection worked in her favour.

According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer detected at a localised stage has a five-year relative survival rate of more than 99 per cent, underscoring the importance of recognising symptoms and seeking prompt medical attention.

But surviving cancer came at a cost.

“I was going through it. When I lost my hair, it’s like I’ve lost myself. When I lost my lashes, I lost myself. When I lost my brows, I lost myself.”

One of her greatest challenges was trying to protect her children from the reality of her illness.

“My daughter was seven at the time. She saw that I was sick. And, based on what she saw on TV, she kept asking, ‘Is it cancer you have, Mom? I said, no, Mommy’s just sick. I couldn’t tell her.”