Katrina Turner was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and in an effort to raise awareness, she is sharing her experience.
Thirty-six-year-old Katrina, who is an orthopaedics nurse at Musgrave Park Hospital in Belfast, found out she had stage two invasive lobular carcinoma in October 2016.
Nine months on, she has undergone surgery, radiotherapy with hormone treatment continuing for a number of years but an early diagnosis meant her prognosis was good.
In conversation with The Irish News, Katrina explained how she underwent regular self-checking.
"My consultant said I was lucky to have found the lump because it was on the inner side of the breast, towards the breast bone and was deep into the tissue.
"But because I had been checking regularly for years, I recognised it was different.
"And that's what I want people to do; look out for changes and seek medical help if they find something of concern".
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Katrina believes that self-checking saved her life by an early cancer diagnosis because otherwise, she wouldn't have worried until she started to feel unwell and at that point, things could have been much more serious.
The Antrim native started a blog, Katrina's Kicking Cancer, to document her journey and there are numerous posts explaining how it's so important to be aware of changes in your body.
As well as encouraging people to self-check their bodies, Katrina is fundraising for the Friends of the Cancer Centre, a Northern-Ireland based charity that helped her during her treatment.
To give back and say thank you, she is hosting a Big Day Out in Ballycastle, Co Antrim this coming Saturday, 29th July.
