'I moved to Australia alone at 19. 4 years later, I made a devastating call to my mum.'

At 19 years old, Jess Wu bravely packed up her life in Hong Kong and moved to Sydney to study.

Over the next four years, she would call her family to talk about the life she'd built in her new home.

Until one day Jess had to make a call no parent ever wants to hear. She had cancer.

In June 2020, Jess discovered a lump in her breast but at 23 years old, she wasn't too concerned. Neither was her GP.

A biopsy came back inconclusive and her doctor recommended she wait and come back in six months or visit a specialist.

"I was at uni and I was a student so I was like, 'I'm 23, nothing's going to happen. I don't need to see a specialist'," she tells Mamamia.

But the lump never went away. Less than a year on, Jess decided to front the cost of a specialist for peace of mind.

"They told me the lump had doubled in size. I was quite concerned but I didn't think it was cancer."

That was until Mother's Day 2021, when her specialist called.

"I was like, 'Why are you calling me on a Sunday?' and she let me know I'd been diagnosed with stage two breast cancer and said 'You have to act really quick from now on'," Jess said.

"I went blank. I was like 'What the f*ck, it couldn't be me'."

Luckily, Jess's partner was by her side to comfort her as Jess decided what to do next: break her mother's heart on her special day or keep the news a secret.

"I'd organised a call with my mum on Mother's Day and I didn't want to break her heart," she said.

"I pretended everything was fine and celebrated with her. It was incredibly difficult for me to hide the fact."

Over the next month, Jess processed her new reality with cancer.

"I knew my mum couldn't stand it with me being away, so I got my best friend back home in Hong Kong to go to her house to be there for her. I told them together.

"I said, 'Please don't feel bad for me' because I'd accepted what's going on. They just broke down. It was really hard not being there for them and they couldn't physically touch me."

Chemotherapy caused Jess to lose her hair.

Treatment was "a rollercoaster" but by the end of 2023, she was in remission.

"I thought, 'okay, I'm having a healthy lifestyle. I keep exercising. I pay attention to what I eat a bit more'.

"I went on lots of trips and holidays in 2023. When I came back, I realised I couldn't breathe normally during Pilates, which was really weird."

She contacted Peta Brydon, her McGrath Foundation breast care nurse, and was advised to visit the hospital for a check-up.

"We knew straight away there was a problem… one side of her chest X-ray was white, it was collapsed," Peta told Mamamia.

The cancer was back and this time it was stage four.

"I had to go back on chemotherapy, which was really hard for me," Jess said.

"It looked like she was really in remission. She did everything — she had very aggressive chemo for five and a half months. It was gruelling," Peta added.

Watch: Woman shares what it's like to battle cancer while pregnant. Post continues below.

Navigating the devastation of cancer with family in another country is difficult, but Jess feels lucky to have her partner and Peta by her side.

As a McGrath Foundation breast care nurse, Peta acts as her patient's advocate and provides care coordination, clinical care and support.

For Jess, she was a saving grace.

"It was everything to have her with me. She kept me company. She taught me a lot of things about how to handle things your emotions and intimacy and how to break the news to your friends and your parents."

With stage four cancer, Jess will be undergoing treatment for the rest of her life.

It's something her parents are still in disbelief about.

"They don't believe I can't be cured. They refuse to accept the fact I have stage four. 'There's a miracle to happen,' they say."

Jess's life now looks like regular progress scans to check the chemotherapy is keeping her stabilised.

"It was really hard for me to accept I might be having chemo forever," Jess said.

"The treatment plan is if the chemo is working, to keep having it until it doesn't work and then we find something else. It buys me more time with my family."

So far, things are looking good.

"We can't cure this disease, but it's treatable and we want to focus on her having a good quality of life and living well," Peta said.

Jess Wu with her McGrath Foundation breast care nurse Peta Brydon.

"If you grow them, know them"

Reframing her life to include ongoing cancer treatment was difficult, but it's given Jess a new purpose: "To make sure every young woman around me does think about breast cancer a bit more."

"The biggest takeaway is to trust your gut and seek a second opinion, no matter what it costs you. That's what I didn't do and I'd tell anybody else to go and do it, even if the GP says it's fine, see another."

Peta agreed, saying there was a common bias that breast cancer only affects older people, which is not the case.

"Fifty-eight people will be diagnosed today with breast cancer in Australia. One in seven women in their lifetime will be diagnosed," Peta said.

"If you look around a group of friends, one of them is going to get cancer.

"If you grow them, you should know them. If you feel a lump you push for an investigation. Don't have it dismissed until they confirm it's nothing."

For information and resources on breast cancer symptoms and treatment in Australia, visit the Cancer Council here. For more information on the McGrath Foundation, visit here.

Feature image: Supplied.