Mother diagnosed with breast cancer one week after birth of son says it took ‘choice away’ for breastfeeding
Sarah Husband, 39, found a lump on her breast when she was in her third trimester and received her cancer diagnosis one week after her son was born.
A mother who was diagnosed with breast cancer a week after her son was born said she was “gutted” to have to stop breastfeeding in order to start cancer treatment, but is relieved the treatment was a success and she is now cancer-free.
Sarah Husband, 39, a paramedic living in Suffolk, said she found a lump on her right breast while in her third trimester in September 2024, during a parenting course on breastfeeding.
She saw a doctor within a week, then had an ultrasound and biopsy – and during the two-week wait for her results, she was induced and gave birth to her “healthy and happy” son, Ted, a week early.
Sarah started breastfeeding, but just one week after the birth, she said she had a “very scary” conversation with an oncologist who confirmed she had a 4cm tumour in her breast.
Further testing two weeks later would confirm it was HER2-positive breast cancer, a more aggressive type of cancer.
Sarah had a total of 20 rounds of chemotherapy, five high-dose radiotherapy treatments and a mastectomy – treatment which started three weeks after Ted was born – and she said she felt “very lucky” to be told she had no sign of active disease in April 2025.
However, Sarah said that one of the most difficult aspects of her treatment was being told that she could not breastfeed her newborn son because cancer treatment via breast milk can harm a baby’s growth.
Sarah, who is originally from London, told PA Real Life: “Actually, that first week, (Ted) took to the breast really well.
“I’d struggled with my first child, so I’d gone to all the classes this time and I wanted to get this right.
“I felt very strongly about wanting to breastfeed for as long as I possibly could… so when they said to stop breastfeeding, I just remember looking at my baby and thinking, ‘How?’
“I was gutted.”
Before her diagnosis, Sarah said her health and fitness were “really good”, but she has always been aware of a family history of breast cancer.
“My mother had it when she was in her early 40s, both of her sisters, her mother, my cousins on my maternal side and my paternal grandmother too,” she said.
“But yet there’s no genetic variation found.”
As a result, Sarah said she has “always known” it was likely going to happen to her, so she has been persistent with seeing medical professionals over the years.
Sarah and her husband, John, 40, were “really happy” to find out in March 2024 they were expecting a second child – alongside Charley, 15 – and the pregnancy progressed “really well”.
But, in her third trimester around September 2024, Sarah said she and John were doing a breastfeeding class on how to express colostrum – the first breast milk released after birth – when she felt a lump in her right breast.
“If I hadn’t done that (class), I wouldn’t have been pushing so hard,” Sarah said.
“But I didn’t panic because I know that milk ducts get blocked.”
A GP appointment, a week later, led to an ultrasound on October 18 2024, where a doctor gave her a physical examination and then “dotted up” the outline of the lump.
“God, that’s quite big,” Sarah thought to herself.
“Then you go into a room and they lay you on the side, and immediately it’s gone very quiet.”
Sarah was encouraged to have a biopsy that same day and said she came out after the procedure to her husband in the waiting room and “had a little cry”, already fearing the worst.
Four days later, on October 22, Sarah was induced because doctors were aware she was on a “breast cancer pathway” and she said her son Ted came out “in a jiffy”, with no complications during his birth at West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds.
Sarah and John were able to take Ted home the next day, and she said she was encouraged to breastfeed “as normal” until the results of the biopsy came through.
A week later, Sarah spoke to an oncologist who delivered the news.
“We’re going to have to be very direct with you – you have got breast cancer,” Sarah recalled the oncologist saying.
“The tumour is fairly large, we know that it’s rapidly growing and it’s also very unusual.”
Further specialist testing sent to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge confirmed two weeks later the specific type of cancer Sarah had: HER2-positive breast cancer.
Sarah said she was told she had to stop breastfeeding so that she could get an MRI.
“They said to do it slowly, but I was so scared that if I didn’t do it quickly, it was going to take longer to get the MRI.
“So, I actually just went cold turkey, which was against advice… they dried up very, very quickly, but it was just extremely painful.
“I remember having a night where I couldn’t even sit up in bed because my chest was so uncomfortable.”
Three weeks after Ted was born, Sarah had a port fitted and she started a targeted drug to reduce the risk of her cancer returning. She also began six months of chemotherapy, describing the latter as “horrendous”.
“I had pain in every part of my body… throughout all of my bones and joints.
“It was absolutely excruciating and I remember feeling it all in my legs and toes… I almost wanted to cut them off one night.”
Sarah also experienced stomach issues, loss of taste and hair loss, for which she shaved her head.
In March 2025, Sarah had a mastectomy on her right breast and reconstruction surgery, before she was told two weeks later there was no evidence of disease.
However, she needed five rounds of radiotherapy and 14 rounds of chemotherapy as a preventative measure, which she received until April this year.
Sarah said her life today is “really good” and Ted just turned two years old.
She is not yet back working as a paramedic, and said she is also receiving counselling to help try to process everything.
On what it was like going through cancer treatment with a newborn, Sarah said: “It was terrifying because I just thought, ‘Am I going to be here to see you grow up?’
“Like so many mothers, I imagined feeding my baby, comforting him and creating that bond. Instead, cancer took the choice away from me before I even had the chance.
“There were days I felt exhausted, sick and frightened, but motherhood doesn’t stop because you have cancer.
“My boys gave me a reason to keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
Sarah shares her story as part of World Cancer Research Fund’s Every Step Tells a Story campaign, which spotlights people whose lives have been shaped by cancer. To learn more, visit: wcrf.org/support-us/every-step.