Breast cancer rates are rising in younger populations, and when early detection can save lives, education is crucial to reduce mortality rates.
Having breast cancer at the same time helped Connie and Cortney work through their treatments because they were able to truly understand what the other was going through.
This article was produced by the Healthing editorial team with the support of a grant from Breast Cancer Canada.
Breast Cancer Canada did not have any editorial influence or control over the content.
Cortney Drover and her twin sister, Connie Claeys, are both living with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. They share the BRCA2 gene, a gene associated with an increased risk of developing breast and other forms of cancer.
Their journey with breast cancer started at the end of 2014 when Cortney was only 29 years old, an age well below the recommended age for breast cancer screenings. She felt a lump in her armpit, and at the time, she didn’t think anything of it. She was young and healthy, and breast cancer wasn’t on her radar. Eventually, she went to the emergency department near her home in Okotoks, Alberta, and she was told it was probably just a swollen lymph node from fighting off a cold.
“No one really said, ‘Oh, I think you should do this or go get this checked just in case.’ Just with our age, even though it was only ten years ago, even back then, people were like, ‘No, it doesn’t happen to younger people.’ So, we were just not on the radar, which I can completely understand,” Cortney said.
However, her mother wasn’t completely satisfied with the diagnosis Cortney got from the ER doctor, and after “pretty much begging” Cortney to get it checked out more thoroughly, she gave in to her mother’s wishes and got an ultrasound. That ultrasound was the diagnostic test that confirmed it wasn’t a swollen lymph node. It was stage III invasive ductal carcinoma.
“It was a pretty big shock for sure,” she said when recalling the diagnosis because of how far out of her mind breast cancer was at the time.
Cortney’s twin sister Connie didn’t have any lumps that she noticed, but because Cortney was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, her doctor urged her to look as well. They shared the same gene associated with breast cancer, after all.
“Within a couple of days, I was told that I had two cancerous lumps on my left breast. So, I was diagnosed with stage II,” Connie said. “I kind of just got checked because of her, not really thinking that anything would come of it, but it did.”
It’s a scenario all too familiar these these days, as highlighted in Breast Cancer Canada’s 2024 Progress Report—a first-of-its-kind report detailing everything there is to know about breast cancer rates, screening practices, and more. The reality is that breast cancer is rising in younger populations, particularly those in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, but only 28 per cent of people polled for the report had breast cancer screening.
Understanding breast cancer through different perspectives
The report focuses on four key facets of breast cancer in Canada as a way to help people like Connie and Cortney arm themselves with the right knowledge—understanding screening and early detection, timely access to treatment, financial impact of a diagnosis and clinical insights.
Angela Marlatt, the Vice President of Mission and Advocacy, who oversees communications and advocacy for Breast Cancer Canada, hopes that the report can make information about breast cancer in the country more available so that people who develop the disease at a young age, are well aware of their risks and the avenues they can take to get an early diagnosis.
“We’re trying to really shine a light on any gaps or opportunities or priority areas that the country should be looking at and trying to make breast cancer just looked at from that national lens,” said Marlatt, later continuing. “It’s coming at it from different perspectives and coming at it from different lenses that is so important.”
The report targeted feedback from three key groups across the country, all of whom are impacted by breast cancer in some way. Perspectives from the Canadian public were used to determine how much is known about breast cancer, screenings, and other information about the disease, while patients provide a glimpse into the first-hand experience of receiving a diagnosis. Medical experts were also involved in building the report to provide evidence-based recommendations and to further impact health policy in Canada. This trifecta of influence encourages more awareness, better screening practices, and, ultimately, better care.
Marlatt goes on to say that leaning into each resource helps foster better practices, understanding, and awareness by also highlighting issues that need to be addressed to ensure, in the future, people like Cortney and Connie have more information before they are diagnosed as opposed to after.
“We’re trying to give a comprehensive look at the breast cancer landscape across Canada,” she said.
Taking action to provide better screening and care
According to the report, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, and rates only continue to rise in Canada, especially in younger populations.
Angela and the rest of the team at Breast Cancer Canada hope to provide people with better access to screening and care so that when it is diagnosed, it’s done so in the early stages, and when it is treated, the outcomes are far better.
“Breast Cancer Canada is really committed to advancing evidence-based priorities, and we know that things like standardized screening protocols, access to care, alleviating some of those financial burdens … are going to impact so many individuals,” she said. “We know that we need to have the best care available for each and every individual, so really this report is to come forward with some solutions.”
Some issues the report addresses include a lack of education and awareness surrounding breast cancer, what it is, and who it affects so that people in more high-risk groups can get screened at younger ages to catch it earlier and, thus, improve mortality rates. The hope is that the recommended screening age be lowered to 40 for all people, and self-referral screening should be supported by healthcare professionals across the country at any age.
“We know that early detection saves lives, and routine screening is a huge piece to that,” said Angela. “So, really encouraging individuals to get screened ahead of any symptoms presenting and certainly that theme was supported by the average Canadian wanting Canada to lower that screening age.”
The report also calls for screening guidelines to be updated every two years, ideally, so that the recommendation reflects the current landscape of breast cancer in the country.
Cortney and Connie are just two of the many people who support the report’s findings and what it’s trying to do because if they had access to data like this prior to their diagnosis, things might have gone a little differently.
“The amount of information I know now based on ten years ago is like night and day, and I think it’s hard for young women. You always say it won’t happen to me,” said Cortney, later continuing, “If we had the information now, even somebody saying to us, ‘You should probably get screened at a younger age,’ I would have been like, ‘Oh, for sure. Why not?’ But it just wasn’t out there for us to even know about.”
As for what women can do with the information from the new report, Connie believes that combining that knowledge with self-advocacy is the best way to prevent a late-stage breast cancer diagnosis.
“If you think something’s wrong, never think that you’re too young or that it won’t happen to you,” she said. “Follow your gut.”
Going through breast cancer with a shoulder to lean on
Having breast cancer at the same time helped Connie and Cortney work through their treatments because they were able to truly understand what the other was going through.
Today, both Cortney and Connie are still taking treatment for their breast cancer, which has advanced to stage 4 in the years following their initial diagnosis. Cortney was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer first, and for two years, she went through the experience alone. But then, Connie received hers, and while she wasn’t happy about the diagnosis, she was relieved because watching her sister go through the experience alone the second time around was extremely challenging.
“For the first two years, she was facing it alone, and I could only imagine, or she would tell me what she’s going through, but I couldn’t really relate,” said Connie. “When I got diagnosed, it honestly just took a huge weight off of my shoulders because I finally understood what she was going through, and I just had so much guilt in me that I was cancer-free and she wasn’t.”
Now, a decade later and four breast cancer diagnoses between them, Connie and Cortney are managing their disease with medication that allows them to live a relatively everyday life.
Both women were diagnosed at an early age and with more advanced—although not the most advanced—forms of breast cancer. Both women thought nothing of their tests, mainly because they thought they were far too young to get cancer.
“I remember getting my lump, and my mom said, ‘You need to get it checked,’ and I’m like, ‘Why?’ Young kids don’t get cancer,” said Cortney. “That’s something you get when you’re 90 and you die from it. That is how ridiculous my thinking of it was.”
