Woman thought chest pain was pulled muscle from gym until shock cancer diagnosis
An avid gym-goer is urging people to go get checked out if something doesn't feel right after medics discovered her chest pain was actually cancer.
Fitness lover Louise Glazer was hitting the gym up to five times a week when she noticed a bit of pain in her left side while exercising in January 2024.
The mum-of-three from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire didn't think too much of it considering she was 'very fit', was 'eating clean' and 'hardly drank alcohol', writing it off as simply pushing herself a bit too hard at the gym or a pulled muscle at most.
But when the pain continued for the next four months, she decided to make a trip down to her GP to double check everything was OK.
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"I thought it was because I was lifting weights that were too heavy or that I'd pulled a muscle," she explained. "I was cancelling classes because everything felt quite tight.
"Then when I would go to classes and they did dumbbells, I wouldn't be able to do this on my left-hand side."
Medics referred the 42-year-old for physio sessions and booked her in for two ECG scans, which both came back clear.
And at first, it seemed like her symptoms were improving, but one night Louise felt a sharp shooting pain in her chest and decided to get herself looked at again.
Only this time, Louise would receive the tragic news that it was breast cancer causing her mystery symptoms.
"[In May], I was watching something in bed and I got a sharp pain. I felt my nipple and it felt like there was something there," she recalled.
"I'd never had pain before and it felt like my milk duct. I got my partner to feel it and he thought one felt harder than the other."
The mum said her 'whole world just froze' as the doctor broke the heartbreaking news of her diagnosis following her biopsy results.
Louise was told she had stage two cancer in her left breast, which scans revealed had ended up spreading to her lymph nodes too.
"I went on holiday and it was one of the hardest weeks of my life as I had to break the news to my kids," she said.
In August, Louise underwent a mastectomy and had 23 lymph nodes removed, before going through 16 rounds of chemotherapy.
The gruelling treatment has took its toll on her, but she says she's grateful her cancer has been treatable.
"I've been wearing the cold cap through my chemotherapy and it's been tough," she said. "I've managed normality for the kids as I can still put my hair up in a tiny bun although it is shedding now.
"My biggest struggle is how I'm going to live after my chemotherapy stops.
"Chemo is a love-hate relationship. I hate it but it's also like a safety blanket that is keeping the cancer away.
"I don't know how I'm going to go and not worry every day that the cancer is going to come back."
She has now been told the amazing news that she is cancer free, but is using her experience to warn others to get themselves down to their GP if they notice unusual and consistent symptoms.
"I would say to others if things [symptoms] stay consistent and they don't go away, don't ignore them," she urged, admitting that if she didn't get that shooting pain, she may have just ignored everything altogether.
"I would have just gone with the physio and thought it was a pulled muscle.
"I may have even just gone back for physio or paid for acupuncture because that's what we thought it was and just completely ignored it.
"If something stays consistent and it goes on for weeks or months, don't ignore it."
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.
Chloe Rowland