Woman With Breast Cancer Reveals How A Bar Of Exfoliating Soap Saved Her Life | HuffPost Life

How A Bar Of Soap Saved This Woman's Life

PA Real Life Features

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A woman has told of how a bar of soap saved her life – by making her realise she had cancer.

Karen Stojanac, 51, is still in recovery after being diagnosed with invasive lobular stage two breast cancer in her left breast.

Prior to her shock diagnosis, she'd had no other symptoms, until she found a lump while exfoliating in the shower with new soap which her son had bought her for Christmas.

After having recurring nightmares about the lump getting bigger, she went to get checked out and was given the devastating news.

Karen Stojanac

The businesswoman, who runs a kitchen company with her husband Ivo, 55, said: "My son had bought me exfoliating Lush soap for Christmas, and I was using it in the shower when I found a lump.

"I waited about three weeks, telling myself it was nothing as no one in my family has had breast cancer so I thought there was no way it could be that.

"But something was niggling inside me. I kept having a dream that my lump was getting bigger and bigger, as though someone was giving me a warning to get it checked out."

She added: "That lump turned out to be benign, but the biopsy I had done in January 2012 found a cancerous lump on my left breast.

"I was very lucky. I would have never had that mammogram if I hadn't found the lump in the shower that day.

"My son saved my life with that present."

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Stojanac said the soap was "an unusual thing" for her son to buy and added: "I really believe someone was looking over me."

After being diagnosed at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guilford in January 2012, Stojanac kept her cancer a secret from her two children Mario, now 25, and Melita, 23, for a month because she didn't want to worry them.

However, after they grew suspicious of her numerous private phone calls to the hospital, she broke the news.

"It was all very quick. I had a biopsy, mammogram and ultrasound and within a few days I was told the news," she recalled.

"I just went into shock and couldn't believe it. I remember the doctors telling Ivo not to worry, that they would look after me. The doctors were speaking but it just sounded like echoes to me.

"I had to be strong for everybody else though."

At the end of January 2012, Stojanac had a lumpectomy at the Royal Surrey County Hospital.

During the operation, however, tissue was removed which was later analysed, proving there was cancer still in the breast.

She was told she needed further surgery to remove all of the cancer cells. This was done a week later at the same hospital.

The now 51-year-old then had four weeks of radiotherapy - but sadly, that wasn't the end of her brush with the disease.

Straight after radiotherapy, she suffered lymphedema - a build up of fluid - which caused her left breast to swell to twice its usual size.

Karen Stojanac

Then six months later, when it didn't get better, she had to have an operation to remove the fluid and a further operation when this reoccurred soon after.

For the past four years she has been on tamoxifen - medication to decrease the amount of oestrogen in her body, as the type of cancer she suffers from can be due to too much oestrogen. She has one year left of the treatment.

She said: "I owe everything to my fantastic surgeon Tracey Irvine and her team. I don't think the NHS get enough credit.

She said that having cancer "changes you as a person".

"Your body is never the same again, and you get tired more easily," she explained. "Your outlook on life changes too. You just want everyone to be happy."

On top of the cancer, Stojanac has also been battling liver disease for more than a decade.

When she was 37 she suffered from a bad bout of glandular fever and during tests for that she was diagnosed with primary biliary cirrhosis, an autoimmune disease which affects the liver.

Doctors told her they'd never seen the condition in someone so young before.

The mum-of-two said: "I had glandular fever and didn't recover from it well and after a liver biopsy they found out what I had. I was told I wouldn't get to my 40th birthday.

"I still take about nine tablets a day for my liver disease, and have regular monitoring and six monthly ultrasounds and liver function tests."

The disease gives her bad fatigue, itchy skin and sharp pains on her right hand side.

Story continues below...

11 Little Known Breast Cancer Facts

Breast cancer is actually many different types of cancer(01 of10)

Breast cancer, in its simplest definition, is cancer that starts in the cells of the breast. But what we call "breast cancer" actually includes several different types of cancer, all of which require different treatments and have different prognoses. (credit:Shutterstock)

A lump doesn't always (or even usually) mean cancer(02 of10)

Most breast lumps indicate something other than breast cancer—some possible causes for breast lumps include cysts, fibrosis, or benign tumours. And some women are just prone to lumpy breasts, which is stressful but harmless. That said, if you find a lump, get it checked out — know that the odds are good that it's nothing serious, but see your doctor about it for your own peace of mind. (credit:Susan G. Komen)

Breast cancer isn't always a lump(03 of10)

It's helpful to know that breast cancer can appear in forms other than a lump, which means there are other physical signs you should watch for. Other symptoms that you should get checked out include thickening of the skin in the breast or underarm area; swelling, warmth, redness, or darkening of the breasts; a change in your breast size or shape; dimpling or puckering of the breast skin; an itchy, scaly sore or rash on the nipple; a pulling in of your nipple or another part of your breast; sudden nipple discharge; or pain in one spot of the breast that doesn't go away. (credit:Shutterstock)

Breast cancer risk isn't always determined by family history(04 of10)

A family history of breast cancer (on either your mother or father's side) can be an indication that your personal odds of developing it are higher than average, but they don't guarantee that you will. As well, the majority of women who develop breast cancer have no identifiable risk factors, including family history. And the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations are hereditary, but only account for five to 10 per cent of all breast cancers. (credit:Shutterstock)

BRCA1 or BRCA2 don't always mean cancer is in your future(05 of10)

The news that Angelina Jolie had had a preventative double mastectomy after testing positive for the BRCA1 gene mutation made many women wonder if they had the same mutation--and what it would mean for them if they did. If you do have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, your lifetime risk of developing breast cancer or ovarian cancer is significantly elevated, and women with the mutations who do get cancer tend to develop it at younger ages; one estimate states that 55 to 65 per cent of the women with the BRCA1 mutation and 45 per cent of those with the BRCA2 mutation will develop breast cancer by age 70, versus 12 per cent in the general population. But it does not mean that cancer is definitely in your future, and every person has to make her own individual decision, based on a variety of factors, about how to best mitigate her risk of disease. (credit:Shutterstock)

Not all women have a one-in-eight risk for breast cancer(06 of10)

This often-cited statistic is somewhat misleading. Breast cancer risk varies based on a variety of factors, including age, weight, and ethnic background. Risk increases as you get older (http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast/statistics/age.htm): most breast-cancer cases are in women in their 50s and 60s. Also, some ethnic groups appear to be more susceptible to breast cancer; the National Cancer Institute in the U.S. says that white, non-Hispanic women have the highest overall risk of developing breast cancer, while women of Korean descent have the lowest risk, but African-American women have a higher death rate. Finally, being overweight or obese may also up your risk; there is evidence that being obese or overweight after menopause can up your breast-cancer risk, possibly because fat tissue is a source of estrogen. (credit:Shutterstock)

There are ways to lower your risk(07 of10)

You can't prevent breast cancer, per se, but there are ways to lower your personal risk. If you are overweight or obese, you could try to lose weight in a healthful way; if you are already in a healthy weight range, try to stay there. Exercise regularly, as as little as 75 to 150 minutes of walking a week has been shown to have a lowering effect on risk. Limit your alcohol consumption — research found that women who have two or more alcoholic drinks each day have an elevated risk of breast cancer. And avoid hormone therapy during menopause, as a combo of estrogen and progestin has been shown to raise breast-cancer risk. (credit:Shutterstock)

Mammograms aren't foolproof(08 of10)

Mammograms are a powerful way to detect breast cancer early on, but they aren't 100 per cent. Mammograms are most effective in women aged 50 and over; they detect about 83 per cent of women who have breast cancer in that age group. For younger women, the sensitivity is 78 per cent. However, that does mean some cancers are missed and that there are false-positive results as well, which could require a biopsy to confirm. Talk to your doctor about when you should start getting mammograms regularly, or if you have symptoms that suggest that you should get one. (credit:Shutterstock)

Fertility treatments don't raise your breast-cancer risk(09 of10)

Some wondered if Giuliana Rancic's fertility treatments were behind her diagnosis of breast cancer in her late 30s, but experts interviewed by WebMD said that there is no strong evidence connecting the disease with the use of fertility drugs. It's true that hormonal treatments can raise the risk for post-menopausal women, but women undergoing fertility treatments are almost never in that age range, and also take the medications for a much shorter period of time. (credit:Getty Images)

Most women survive breast cancer(10 of10)

Cancer is scary, but in most cases, women who are diagnosed with breast cancer survive and lead healthy lives. According to the Breast Cancer Society of Canada, the five-year survival rate is 80 per cent for men and 88 per cent for women. That's up from 79 per cent for women in 1986. (credit:Shutterstock)

"I'm just hoping I won't get to the stage where I need a liver transplant," she said.

"I think I'm lucky I'm still here. I'm blessed to have a wonderful husband, and two beautiful kids.

"I don't look at myself as someone with two life threatening diseases."

She added that she doesn't let her health hold her back: "Whether it's going power walking or doing boot camps, I'm always back out there.

"With both lumpectomies I was back in work after a week, and I was working throughout the radiation therapy - as well as having dinner on the table every night," she said.

"I get up in the morning and I'm still breathing, you just have to carry on."

Karen is supporting Cancer Research UK's Legacy Giving campaign. For more information about writing a gift in your will, visit cruk.org/WriteAnEnd.

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