Woman discovered cancerous breast lump while brushing food crumbs off her chest

A mother-of-three has credited a slice of pizza with saving her life after she detected a breast lump while eating it.

Melanie Thorpe, from Cumbria, found the lump while brushing the crumbs from her salami and mushroom pizza off her shirt.

Concerned, she saw her GP and just five days later was given the devastating news she had breast cancer.

Mrs Thorpe, 52, said: 'I felt absolutely fine and have always been fit and healthy so I had no idea there could have been something wrong.

'It was November 2012 and my youngest son had gone off to university - as a family we always sat at the table to eat, but my husband Craig and I had pizza and were sitting with it on our knees.

'I dropped some on my shirt and went to brush it off and felt a lump.

'I had never noticed it before. 

'It wasn't big. but it was substantial and I could definitely feel it - it wasn't just like when you have a spot on your skin.'

The next morning she phoned her GP - and was given an appointment within the hour. 

'They referred me to Royal Lancaster Infirmary and I had an appointment later that day,' said Mrs Thorpe.

'I met with a surgeon and they did scans. It was all so fast.'

Scans revealed she actually had two lumps, both of which were cancerous.

In January 2013, Mrs Thorpe underwent eight-and-a-half hours of surgery. 

Mrs Thorpe, who is mother to Adam, 29, Alex, 27, and Niall, 20, said: 'I had to have a full mastectomy, but they did reconstructive surgery at the same time.

'I always say I went to sleep with two boobs, and woke up with two boobs.'

Doctors deemed the surgery to be a success and Mrs Thorpe went on to have six rounds of chemotherapy.

She now has six-monthly check ups to make sure the cancer has not returned.

She added: 'The doctors told me had I not found the lump so early it would have grown and been terminal. 

'So I guess the pizza saved my life.'

As a result, she is now backing an early diagnosis campaign. 

'It is so important to get the message across so that people get checked out if they feel any slight changes,' she said.  

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