37-Year-Old Mum With Stage 3 Breast Cancer Found Lump While Trying On Swimsuit

As Julie Devaney Hogan put on her bikini over Labor Day weekend 2022, she felt a “barely there” bump under her nipple. Worried, she called her doctor.

“I was told there was nothing to worry about,” Devaney Hogan, 38, of Boston, told TODAY.com. “They said, ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t care. You have to pass your physical exam at the end of October, just come in then. ‘”

Still, she made an appointment with her OB-GYN and underwent tests, which revealed why she had a lump: it was stage 3 positive HER2-positive invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer.

“My bikini saved my life,” she says.

Lump Leads to Diagnosis

After finding the “pea-sized” ball and being told by her doctor’s office that there was nothing to worry about, Devaney Hogan says she told her friends about it. One spoke.

“My really good friend who’s a nurse said to me, ‘Absolutely not. Don’t just not be seen,'” Devaney Hogan recalled. “She’s like, ‘I don’t care what the doctor said. I don’t care if they aren’t worried. Have it checked. You have three babies – you must be fine. ”

She called her OB-GYN in hopes she could be checked out soon.

“Thanks to a lot of pressure and perseverance, I was able to get an appointment the following week,” she says. “I probably could have pushed him away and said, ‘I’m busy, I have stuff going on,’ and I’m so grateful I did.”

Her doctor referred her to a breast cancer treatment center and she was again reassured that there was “nothing to worry about”. She was told she could have a mammogram and biopsy, but felt there was “no urgency” in their recommendations. Yet she scheduled the tests.

“That bump was something. That lump was HER2 positive, invasive stage 3 breast cancer that had spread to my lymph nodes,” says Devaney Hogan. “I could very well have ignored it and waited. And I was told that if I had waited, we would be in a very different scenario.

She underwent 12 cycles of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, removal of lymph nodes and radiotherapy to treat his cancer. Recent scans found residual cancer, so she has started chemotherapy again, which will last until next year, and she will undergo reconstructive surgery in November.

At 35, Devaney Hogan actually had a mammogram because of recurring mastitis in one breast. This made the diagnosis even more surprising.

“There were no other symptoms,” she said. “I have not presented in any way or have a family history or other symptoms that would put me on high alert.”

Navigating motherhood, her career as a vice president at a tech company, and cancer have been difficult at times.

“Cancer can be somewhat glorified and dramatized on TV, so you have this expectation of what it’s going to be like, and all of a sudden I’m going to go from being a busy mother with a career to being a very sick person,” says Devaney Hogan. “The reality is you get the diagnosis, and then you come home, and your kids are still yelling at you for not opening their string cheese the right way.”

She took a leave of absence to focus on treatment and recovery.

“I really started looking at this as my new life’s work,” she says. “I was going to put in hours a week to…make sure I got through it.”

During her treatment, however, she reflected on her diagnosis.

“You never expect it to be you. That might be a horrible thing to say,” she said. “I feel good, I exercise and I eat well, and it’s shocking.”

She also felt like she knew her body well and wondered how she had missed the mass.

“How was I so blinded by the fact that this disease could catch me,” says Devaney Hogan. “That’s when I started to brew this idea of ​​squeezing and thinking about ways to make sure other women didn’t have to think of breast cancer awareness just as a performative act. .. in October.”

Season for Squeezin’

Prior to her diagnosis, Devaney Hogan viewed breast cancer awareness in October as an event that meant finding pink clothes for her children to wear to school or raising awareness of a disease that affected older women. She wondered if there was anything she could do that could make breast cancer prevention more relevant for women under the age recommended for mammograms. Season for Squeezin‘ was born.

“Unfortunately, breast cancer is affecting an increasing number of young women,” she says. “Why not meet them and where they are in the summer and focus on the things they can actually do?”

Devaney Hogan contacted swimwear manufacturers, asking them to include labels with information about breast cancer detection and the Season for Squeezin’ campaign. Heidi Fish – known for designing one of the bikinis Padma Lakshmi wore in Sports Illustrated — agreed to include the tags. Devaney Hogan recently learned that Imsy Swimwear and Kortni Jeane Swimwear will also be using the tags.

Most medical groups no longer recommend routine breast self-exams as a way to screen for breast cancer because research has not shown they improve breast cancer detection or survival rates. according to the Mayo Clinic. However, it is recommended that you become familiar with your breasts so that you can recognize changes and what is normal versus what is not – and take this information to a health care provider as soon as possible.

“We were founded to deliver the message of giving yourself a squeeze every time you put on your bathing suit,” she says.

She is launching a campaign the week of June 18 to encourage people to take pictures of themselves in bathing suits holding fruit and tag five of their friends to do the same. She hopes this will remind people to get familiar with their breasts.

Since her diagnosis and the start of the Squeezin’ season, Devaney Hogan has learned a lot about herself. Throughout her career in the tech industry, others told her to “keep it down” or be “tough” if she wanted to succeed. But she found that staying true to herself made a huge difference.

“Being myself saved my life. I was comfortable pushing for what I needed, talking, and (leaning into) my ability to build relationships,” she says. “It’s terrible that it takes a diagnosis like breast cancer to accept and celebrate who you are.”