I am an eighty year old lady who has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. This has come as a complete surprise because the discomfort I was experiencing across the left breast seemed to be associated with the dreadful fibromyalgia symptoms I have had for years. I thought I merely had inflammation of the ribcage - costochondritis -which is quite common with fibromyalgia.  There was no visible lump in the breast but some pain under the arm which I thought could be part of the ribcage.

I decided to check with my GP who concluded that I had angina.  He put me on a betablocker and also prescribed a small daily dose of aspirin.  As a precaution , he told me to have a chest X-ray.  This disclosed a small lesion in the right lung and I was asked to undergo a CT scan. The lesion was benign but an abnormality in the left breast was detected and the information was passed on to the breast team. Now I have been diagnosed with cancer and am waiting for the next steps. There is no heart problem and medication has been discontinued.

I am puzzled by the cancer diagnosis because there is no family history of it and,as far as I could see, little evidence of anything being wrong when I examined my breasts. I was under the impression that cancer in the breast is usually painless but obviously I have been proved wrong.

I wonder how many other fibromyalgia sufferers could have mistaken the signs and are blissfully unaware that there could be a serious breast issue!