I got terminal breast cancer at 31 despite my clear mammogram – here’s the four surprising signs I wish I’d never ignored

A nurse has told of the horror of being dealt a devastating terminal breast cancer diagnosis — despite a mammogram returning a normal result just weeks earlier.

Kristi Halpin, 33, from New Jersey, US, ‘ignored’ a series of odd symptoms that blighted her for months, including back pain, weight loss, strange bruises and fatigue.

The mother-of-one put the troubling problems down to being run down following the birth of her son, Caiden, in October 2022 — nine months before her symptoms began.

Never did she expect doctors to discover deadly tumours in both breasts, her spine, lungs and ribs.

‘I was devastated and terrified,’ she told her 38,000 TikTok followers about her diagnosis. 

‘I can’t leave my boys [her husband and son] and have my baby grow up without me.’

Ms Halpin’s ordeal began in early summer 2023, when she noticed she was losing weight unintentionally.  

She assumed she had ‘just got lucky’ and started to lose the baby weight far earlier than she expected. 

Another symptom she recalled was fatigue, which she assumed was the result of being kept up at night by a crying newborn. 

She told her TikTok following that she’d also noticed a lot of ‘random bruising’ all over her arms and legs, which she didn’t consider to be a ‘big deal’ and thought they were causes by her dogs bashing into her. 

But then a new, alarming symptom appeared that was difficult to dismiss — agonising back pain. 

When the problem didn’t subside in August, she decided to see a chiropractor, which ultimately failed to ease the pain. 

Then, on the day of her son’s first birthday party in October 2023, the agony had become so unbearable she found herself unable to get up off the bathroom floor after trying to give her baby a bath.

Exasperated, she visited the local emergency room the following day, where doctors conducted blood tests and discovered abnormalities. 

Doctors believed she may be suffering with a gallbladder problem, but sent her home and told her to return for a check-up a few weeks later.

Within this time, Ms Halpin had discovered a strange change to the appearence of her nipple. 

‘I was getting in the shower and noticed my nipple appeared to be pushed in from the side, like it was inverted,’ she said, adding that a lump seemed to have formed beneath the surface. 

She sought a mammogram, which failed to show any tumours. Radiologists assured her that the growth was likely a cyst. 

Although breast cancer screening can find cancers early, it isn’t perfect and some people may get a false negative result, meaning tumours are missed.

This is especially true for women with dense breasts, where cancerous lumps don’t clearly show up on mammograms. 

Unsatisfied with the radiologist’s conclusion, Ms Halpin sought the help of a breast cancer surgeon, who offered to take a biopsy ‘just in case’.

Five days later when the results came through it revealed she had breast cancer.  Further MRI scans revealed it had spread to her bones, lungs and ribs.

‘I couldn’t hear anything it felt like time stopped, I couldn’t see, I was gone for a couple moments,’ Ms Halpin told her followers recalling her diagnosis. 

Ms Halpin said her medical team recommended courses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to shrink the tumours and stop them spreading to other parts of the body.

In her most recent clips, she has revealed that the treatment is so far keeping the disease under control.

However, her disease is classed as ‘terminal’.  

Metastatic breast cancer occurs when cancer cells have spread from the breast to other areas of the body. This is also known as stage 4 breast cancer.

Around 55,000 women and 370 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK, says Breast Cancer Now.

Meanwhile, roughly 300,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in women every year in the US.

The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign. 

The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. This usually presents as a swelling or lump in an armpit.

However, changes to the skin such as dimpling or a rash on the beast can also be a warning sign. 

In some cases breast cancer can cause discharge and a rash or crusting around the nipple. 

More than 25 per cent of women will survive stage four breast cancer for five years or more after they are diagnosed, according to Cancer Research UK. 

In recent years, doctors have raised concern about the rising number of cancer cases in young people.  

Breast cancer rates in those aged 25 to 49 have risen by nearly a fifth since 1990, according to Cancer Research UK. 

It’s thought lifestyle habits such as an unhealthy diet causing weight gain and drinking alcohol are driving the rise in cases. 

That’s because alcohol boosts levels of oestrogen in the blood, and abnormally high levels of this hormone have been linked to breast cancer. 

Being overweight also increases the risk of 13 types of cancer, including breast cancer.