I have always regularly 'checked' for lumps - standing up but for some reason  I did it lying down and felt as sort of boil under the skin. There wasn't one on the other side so I was a bit concerned.

I only told 2 people at work and my boss said go straight to your doctor 1st thing tomorrow and get an early appointment, he saw me straight away and felt my lump, and refered me to a consultant' as a precaution'. At this point everybody said it's probabably only  cyst.

I got an appointment with a consultant 2 days later, he checked it, did an ultra sound scan sent me for mamogram at same time, radiographer confirmed it was cancer (big shock) and did a biopsy there and then. (Applied local anaesthetic so didn't hurt much, just like bood test)The consultant then arranged for me to come back in a couple of days for my results. i.e what type of cancer and how they would procede from here.

He did tell me it would probably be lumpectomy not mastectomy, which was reassuring and that it was completely curable. So I went away feeling very positive. Even planning to go away for a week before my next appointment - not a great idea, I didn't know then how fast things would move on. A bit scary but apparently thats how it works in all cases.

In hind sight I wish I'd taken someone with me for that 1st appointment - I just hadn't realised they would tell me straight way and do biopsies there and then etc.