Claire Danvers says she first became aware of her symptoms, which included severe back pain, fatigue, and nausea, at the start of 2024. She says the fatigue became so extreme that her ‘eyes would feel heavy’ after lunchtime and her body would ‘physically hurt’I needed power naps before school run – but it was a sign of something deadly
A mum who blamed needing a power nap before the school run on being a busy mum was devastated when doctors uncovered thirteen tumours in her breast.
Claire Danvers says she first became aware of her symptoms, which included severe back pain, fatigue, and nausea, at the start of 2024. She says the fatigue became so extreme that her ‘eyes would feel heavy’ after lunchtime and her body would ‘physically hurt’.
The 39-year-old says she would find herself needing to take a nap before picking her children up from school – but put the tiredness down to being a busy, self-employed mum. Claire, who was taking painkillers every day because her back pain was so severe, says that her symptoms were initially put down to her suffering from endometriosis.
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Claire Danvers was devastated by her diagnosis(Image: Kennedy News & Media)
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But after discovering a lump in her right breast in February 2025, Claire was prompted to visit her GP in April 2025. Doctors referred Claire for a biopsy and at the end of May 2025 she received the devastating news that she had breast cancer – after doctors discovered 13 tumours in her right breast.
Claire says she was ‘traumatised’ by the news and has since undergone a mastectomy as well as chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.
The network marketer says the fear of leaving her children behind is ‘horrendous’ and is encouraging other women who experience breast cancer symptoms to ‘advocate for themselves’.
She needed chemotherapy(Image: Kennedy News & Media)
Claire, from Poole, Dorset, said: “I was suffering with extreme back pain. I was taking paracetamol and ibuprofen every day for the aches and pains that I was having. I was experiencing extreme fatigue – I was tired all the time.
“I would get to after lunch time and my eyes would feel so heavy and my body would actually hurt. I would want to go to sleep but then I was putting it down to having two kids and having a very stressful business because I’m self-employed.
Claire Danvers and husband Perry(Image: Kennedy News & Media)
“I was putting all of my symptoms down, explaining them away with how my life was. There were definitely some days that I would recline in my chair and close my eyes for a little bit. I just put it down to the fact that I was going through a lot of stress at the time.”
Claire visited her GP in April 2025 after discovering a lump in her right breast two months earlier. Claire said: “In December 2024 I had a lump come up in my armpit.
“I was explaining stuff away – I was like I’ve been unwell, it’s just a raised lymph node and then that disappeared in 10 days. When I found the lump in my breast in February 2025 yet again I thought that’s not normal, that doesn’t feel right, but I had a lump in my armpit and that went away.
“I unfortunately left it until April and it was only because my husband was constantly badgering me to go to the doctors and actually get it checked out that I did. The doctor examined me and said that straight away she was referring me for the two-week rapid referral pathway for breast cancer.”
Claire and Perry with their children Bella-Rose and Oakley(Image: Kennedy News & Media)
Claire underwent a biopsy on May 2nd 2025 and received the devastating news that she had invasive lobular carcinoma, a type of breast cancer, later that month.
Claire said: “By the time I actually found it, my cancer as a whole had grown to 9.7cm and I had 13 tumours in my breast. “I was traumatised [when I was diagnosed]. The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do is tell my family and my two kids.
“Cancer diagnosis is traumatic enough but there’s also guilt you feel as a parent, especially having young children. My children have only just turned six and eight. The fear of leaving them behind – that guilt is horrendous.”
Claire underwent a mastectomy with reconstruction on her right breast in June 2025 and has since undergone four months of chemotherapy treatment and 15 sessions of radiotherapy. Claire said: “Everything is just very traumatic.
She wants others to speak up(Image: Kennedy News & Media)
“You can’t take it in – it’s like your watching your life from the outside. It doesn’t feel like you’re going through it, it feels like you’re watching someone else go through it. I’ve literally just finished my chemotherapy and radiotherapy and now I’m having hormone therapy.
“Because the cancer is driven by my hormones, they have to shut your hormones off. My life has now been changed for the rest of my life. I’m 39 years old and I’ve been drop kicked into menopause because they have to stop my hormones, to stop my cells turning into cancer. Once I’ve done all of that, as long as I can tolerate the next stage of hormone therapy, I will then eventually have a hysterectomy.”
Claire is now encouraging other people who notice that there is something wrong with their bodies to ‘advocate for themselves’. She said: “I think it was very easy for people – doctors or even myself – to look and say my symptoms were because of endometriosis. My advice would be to always advocate for yourself. If you have that gut feeling that something isn’t right and even if you don’t know what it is, push through it and keep pursuing it.”