Sam tackles triple challenge to support Asda Tickled Pink and inspire people

Sam, 32, is using her experience of cancer to highlight both the physical and mental impact of breast cancer risk and the importance of awareness.

At 19, Sam was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy to her chest. While the treatment saved her life, radiotherapy increased their risk of developing breast cancer later in life.

"I had treatment for that and thankfully survived it and went into remission, but one of the treatments for it was radiotherapy to my chest because I had a tumour in my chest. That radiotherapy left me with increased risk for breast cancer later in life."

For a long time Sam suffered from severe anxiety every time she went for her annual breast screening, which badly affected her mental health. These episodes would be triggered by the letter from the hospital inviting her to book a scan: "I would just turn into a shell of myself. Between getting the letter and getting the results was usually like two, three months and that's a quarter of my year where I'm a different person entirely.

"I knew the letter would be coming around September, October time. I'd go straight into really bad anxiety that started having physical effects on me. I was always nauseous, always shaking, having panic attacks. Then having the scan itself, that was a massive trigger for my PTSD, being in an MRI scanner again after all those years.

"When you've beaten cancer, you start being quite grateful to be alive. And there were days when I'd feel like that and then days where I would be like "why me?" and days where it would be, "oh my god it's going to happen again", so I had lots of different thoughts and anxieties."

Sam reached out to their GP in 2023 to better understand her risk. The results showed a likelihood of developing breast cancer comparable to someone with the BRCA gene. BRCA is a short way of saying Breast Cancer. We all have the BRCA genes, but some people have a change or fault which can increase their risk of breast cancer and other cancers.

"About two years ago I went to my GP, I'd had enough, and I said "What can we do about this risk? What is the risk?" No one ever told me how high my risk was. If they'd turned around and said it's actually 20%... you know, that's obviously still scary, but they came back and they said your risk is up to 70% likely to get breast cancer in your lifetime.

"So I said "alright what can we do about that?" and I was offered a couple of different options. They offered to just carry on scanning, which wasn't an option for me because it was changing who I was, changing the DNA of my personality. So we discussed the other options. One was having medication, which could bring on other symptoms such as early menopause. The medication would reduce the risk, but it came with its own concoction of side effects. And then I was offered a risk-reduction mastectomy, with reconstruction or without, and I went for it without reconstruction."

Because it was such a big decision, Sam didn't have the operation straight away: "The breast care team were really great, they gave me time, they gave me the facts and they told me to go and think about it Then there were two years of deliberation, talking to psychologists, making sure I was happy with that decision and I really was. Before my surgery, I had a boob party, a boob-off party, I called it a 'Thanks for the mammaries party!"

Sam underwent a risk reduction double mastectomy in April 2025 and says that for her, it was the right decision: "The minute I came round from my surgery my shoulders dropped for the first time since I was 19. I felt instant relief when I looked down at my chest for the first time without my chest there. So I'm very, very grateful that that was an option for me."

Sam opted not to have reconstructive surgery and is so far happy with her decision, although she may choose to do so in the future.

Since her operation she's been fundraising for CoppaFee!l. Sam set herself three challenges which she dubbed "the triple no nipple challenge". Her first challenge was the London Marathon where she set a personal best record despite sustaining a knee injury during the event. The second event in June is Chase the Sun, a 205-mile cycle ride between sunrise and sunset. And the final event, in September, is Swim Serpentine in London where Sam will swim two miles.

Sam is doing all of her three challenges topless to raise awareness and inspire people to check themselves.

"It's liberating! I'm doing them all topless to show off the scars. I want people to be able to advocate for themselves, go to the GP and, seeing my chest, think, "I should probably check my chest, there's a bit of a lump, go get it checked out. I don't want to get scars like that." I think it's beautiful, this survivor's body I live in and I'm really proud of it. But I know there'll be some people that feel differently, they might see that and go "I should get that little lump checked" and that's what I'm doing. I've lived through all that rubbish so that I can try and turn it into something good. I wanted to do something bold and brave and give people an opportunity to see it."

"I'm very, very proud of myself and I've never been someone that's been like that. And I suppose after the surgery a year ago I got to a point where I was like "I can be proud of myself, I can be proud of my body." I've always put myself down thinking maybe I deserved cancer, maybe I deserved everything that's happened to me, but I've sorted it out and I realised "no, I didn't deserve it." I deserve to live, I deserve to be happy and I deserve to do it all with kindness and love and that's what I'm all about."

Asda Tickled Pink funding enables CoppaFeel! to spark important conversations around breast cancer and body awareness. Sam, 32, is using her story to challenge perceptions and show that her body is strong and valid. Sam also has a message for Asda customers:

"Happy 30th birthday to Tickled Pink. What you guys have been doing over the years is amazing. I've been seeing that messaging since I was a kid and you know when Asda turns pink everybody knows about it. It's such a great platform to raise that awareness and raise that message and get people checking their chests and advocating for themselves and raising money for vital things like Breast Cancer Now and everything they do and CoppaFeel! and everything they do. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"