Four mammograms showed no cancer to be present in her breast, but Tauranga teacher Bridget Prendiville knew something was off.

Pushing for more tests, an ultrasound finally revealed a 10cm mass of breast cancer in her left breast and 28 cancerous nodes under her arm. Bridget had Stage 3 Breast Cancer.

It was back in July 2020, at 57 years old, that Bridget went for her yearly mammogram and everything showed to be fine.

“Then in November I felt like my breast was just a bit heavy,” says Bridget. “There was no lump. It just felt a bit heavy and a bit hard and I went to my doctor and they said: ‘Oh I don’t think there’s anything wrong. It’s just dense breast’.”

Feeling worried that something still wasn’t right, Bridget got referred for another mammogram. “I went in and they did four mammograms. The man said to me: ‘We’ve done four mammograms. We can’t see anything Bridget. We’re going to do an ultrasound’…they did an ultrasound and finally spotted something...Then they biopsied it and it ended up I had 10cm of breast cancer and 28 nodes under my arm with cancer.”

Proactive approach

Bridget says she’s grateful she kept pushing for her health. “Thank goodness I was proactive enough to know there was something wrong. My story really to people is that the mammogram will pick up 90 per cent of breast cancers, but there are 10 per cent of breast cancers that are not detectable by mammogram. It’s called lobular breast cancer and it doesn’t present like ductile breast cancer…it just hides in these little lobules and doesn’t present on the mammogram.”

After her diagnosis of Stage 3 Breast Cancer in 2020, Bridget had a full mastectomy of her left breast and a full node removal from her arm with cancer. Then in 2021, she had 20 weeks of chemotherapy and three weeks of radiation therapy.

Bridget Prendiville receiving chemotherapy treatment. Photo: supplied.

Now, because her breast cancer is hormonal, Bridget says: “I take a hormone tablet for the next 10 years to reduce the estrogen in my body so it’s stopping all the hormones.” She also requires six bone infusions due to the bone weakening effect of low estrogen.

Silver linings

Now aged 60, Bridget says there’s so many silver linings from her diagnosis. “My life has completely changed. I’m eating well and exercising. I’ve just got so many likeminded friends now.”

Getting through her diagnosis, Bridget has used the Breast Cancer Support Service Tauranga Trust. “They’ve been amazingly supportive and I loved going there to chat to people and then they put me onto the Boobops Dragon Boat Team here in Tauranga. Nobody would want to join a breast cancer group or dragon boat team but once you do join it, it just changes your life and it’s just an amazing silver lining to something so horrible. We tend to think of ourselves as not just survivors – we’re thrivers.”

Out of the 55 members in her dragon boat team – three have lobular breast cancer that wasn’t picked up by mammogram. “People must have their mammograms, but even when you have mammograms, also do the self-checking of your breasts. We know what our breasts feel like and when they feel different, you need to do something. You’ve got to listen to your body and when your body’s telling you that something’s not quite right.”

Bridget Prendiville with her Boobops crew. Photo: supplied.