I was overjoyed to discover I was pregnant after a miscarriage at the age of 36, but the day after I discovered a sinister lump that changed everything

A mother who was told to ‘prepare for the worst’ when she was diagnosed with breast cancer days after discovering she was pregnant has urged all women to be vigilant about their health.

Dani Donne and her husband Mark, from Brisbane, were thrilled when her pregnancy test came back positive after months of trying and a devastating miscarriage.

The couple’s joy was short-lived, however, as the next day while changing clothes she felt a small, hard lump on her breast.

Just seven days later, Dani, 36, was told she had breast cancer and needed treatment as soon as possible. Options were limited because her baby was her first priority.

Despite giving birth to a healthy baby girl, Parker, in April 2023, weeks after finishing her first round of chemotherapy, the battle was far from over.

Speaking to FEMAIL, Dani said her pregnancy was a time of heightened anxiety rather than the joyful anticipation most people experience.

‘I was always stressed about her throughout my pregnancy, I didn’t care about her at all. “I didn’t care about my treatments, I didn’t care about any of it, I was just so worried about her,” she said.

Now Dani is warning all women to get their breasts checked, regardless of age or cancer history.

“I was the first person in my family to be diagnosed with breast cancer, so it was a complete shock,” she said.

‘It doesn’t matter how old you are, whether it runs in your family or not, because it doesn’t run in mine – check your breasts.’

Dani lost her first pregnancy at seven weeks in July 2020.

‘I expected it to happen. My hCG levels did not increase and the doctor told me to prepare for the worst,” she recalled.

The couple waited for Dani’s body to recover before trying to start a family again and in September 2022 they became pregnant.

‘When I got the positive pregnancy test, I was very excited. Mark was a little reserved about what had just happened, but I could tell deep down that he was excited too. We had only been excited for a day when I found the lump,” she said.

At the first GP consultation, the doctor said that the lump – a painless hard mass about 2 to 3 cm in size – was worrying.

A biopsy revealed HER2-positive breast cancer, a breast cancer that tests positive for a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2).

‘I was on my own when I found out, so I think I was in complete shock. To be honest, I didn’t listen to what the doctor told me,” Dani said.

“I called Mark after I found out, and he obviously asked me a lot of questions, and I didn’t have any answers for him because I hadn’t been paying attention.”

She was in the middle of her first trimester, so her treatment options had to be carefully planned so as not to harm the baby.

Mater Cancer Care Center Senior Medical Oncologist Dr Catherine Shannon met Dani when she was seven weeks pregnant.

“You can’t safely give chemotherapy during pregnancy until the second trimester, so she had the surgery first because it’s a safer approach early in pregnancy,” she said.

Dr. Shannon explained that targeted HER-2 treatments are not used during pregnancy due to oligohydramnios where there is not enough amniotic fluid around the baby.

Dani had surgery to remove the lump when she was nine weeks old, before starting two rounds of chemotherapy once she reached her second trimester.

‘I’m one of the lucky ones. You never say that when you have cancer, but I actually didn’t get sick from the chemo. I lost my hair and that was the only symptom,” she said.

‘I didn’t have any morning sickness with bub, there was nothing, I just carried on like a normal thing.’

The mother still had four rounds to go when doctors decided to pause treatment to give her a well-deserved break before having Parker – which was fortunate because she ended up being born four weeks premature.

She was able to deliver Parker naturally in April 2023 and both mother and child recovered without incident.

However, she was immediately turned back to tests and treatments for the breast cancer, which now posed no risk to Parker just two days after her birth.

‘I was so overwhelmed with everything and trying to have some sort of routine for myself, Bub and Mark, but at the same time I could understand why my oncologist said we needed to get all these tests done. “We wanted to make sure the cancer didn’t travel anywhere else during my pregnancy,” she said.

“It was hard to enjoy the first few weeks when you had all that stuff going on, but at the same time, I loved every second I had with Parker.”

Dani underwent her last four rounds of chemotherapy, a second surgery to remove all margins and potentially affected lymph nodes, and then four weeks of daily radiation.

All her tests came back clear and she completed treatment in September last year.

Dani is on hormone blockers and has regular scans to ensure the cancer does not return, but continues to live happily with Mark and now ten-month-old Parker.

“She gets involved in absolutely everything, she’s such a happy little baby,” she said.

The mother said that although the cancer made her pregnancy extremely stressful and robbed her of those precious first few weeks as a new mother, she considers herself lucky.

‘I’ve stayed positive the whole time. Before I started chemo, I told Mark, “I’m not going to get sick. Everything will be fine,’ she said.

“The Mater Mothers were fucking amazing. If I was worried or worried about anything, they would press me in for a quick ultrasound to make sure the bump was okay. It made all the difference in the world to know she was okay.”