Rebecca Hockaday didn’t think much of it when a strangely colored freckle appeared on her chest.
At 35, the busy mother-of-two didn’t really have time to overanalyze the random discovery—at least not until more freckles began to pop up.
It took six months for Rebecca to see a dermatologist after finding the first freckle, and she soon realized she was in grave danger.
Rebecca was quickly diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer after being sent to a cancer center in Georgia.
According to The Daily Mail, Rebecca was forced to undergo a bilateral mastectomy, chemotherapy, and twice-a-day radiation treatments before she was finally declared cancer-free.
Rebecca later learned that the “freckles” on her chest had been a telltale sign of inflammatory breast cancer.
Although the spots were very unusual, Rebecca didn’t think she had breast cancer because she had none of the typical signs.
“It was summer and it was where my bathing suit cut off. There was only one so I didn't think anything of it,” she said later.
According to The Daily Mail, inflammatory breast cancer is extremely rare and only makes up less than one percent of all breast cancer cases in the U.S.
Because cancer cells block lymph vessels in the skin surrounding the breast, the breast often looks swollen, red, or inflamed.
Unlike other forms of breast cancer, inflammatory breast cancer typically does not present itself as a distinct lump and instead spreads quickly—sometimes in a matter of hours or days.
Rebecca revealed that her cancer had already spread to her lymphatic system by the time doctors finally caught it.
“No one was in the Christmas spirit. The news made the entire family not want to celebrate. We were supposed to go on a cruise but we couldn't go,” she said.
Just a few weeks after her diagnosis, Rebecca started chemotherapy and began her intense treatment to stop the cancer from spreading any further.
Although her extremely intense treatments were grueling, Rebecca said it was worth the pain and suffering once she was declared cancer-free just 10 months after her diagnosis.
For now, Rebecca can relax, though she must take medication every day to make sure the cancer does not return.
“When it comes back, it comes back with a vengeance. There are no signs of it right now. My biggest fear is telling my husband and sons that it came back,” she said. “I know that at some point it will come back. I can do the fight but right now I'm not thinking about it.”
Rebecca is hoping that by telling her story, she can warn other women about this deadly form of breast cancer.
At the end of the day, she is hoping that her story may help save lives.
