Sam McClymont was getting her sons ready for school when her 'world turned upside down'.

Country singer and Getaway host, Sam McClymont, had her 'world turned upside down' this year as she spent 2024 treating a breast cancer diagnosis.

It was a diagnosis that might have been missed if the 38-year-old hadn't sought out a second opinion.

In a chat with Mamamia, Sam talked us through the moment her life changed.

"It was last October and it was just a regular morning, like a school morning," she said. "I've got two little boys, and they were just jumping around on the bed, as boys do, while I'm laying there. And one of them actually fell on top of me, and I went to grab my boobs where he landed on me, and I actually felt the lump straight away."

After she got her husband, Ben Poxon, to feel the area, he told her "You need to go to the GP," she recalled. "I booked an appointment straight away."

After her GP felt the lump, she was sent for an ultrasound, biopsy and mammogram. There was a lengthy wait of six weeks between appointments, with Sam saying she felt the process was dragged out "because I'm quite young, so I wasn't treated like I needed to be seen straight away."

The result came back negative. "I didn't actually have cancer," she was told.

However, Sam wasn't convinced. She knew it was something, but assumed maybe it was a response to pregnancy.

"It's obviously something. There's a lump there, but they put it down to a whole range of things like hormonal changes," she said.

"It was really irritating me as it was really sore. But cancer isn't normally sore. I thought it was something, so I organised to get it looked at again because my GP had sent a referral to a breast specialist in case."

This gut feeling turned out to be life-saving for Sam, as the specialist sent her away for more tests and discovered she had triple-negative breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer.

Sam McClymont shared the news earlier this year. Image: Instagram/@samimcclymont.

Most concerningly, the process was extremely drawn out. "When I felt the lump, it was October, by the time I'd done all the testing and going back, it was the end of February that I found out that I had cancer," she said.

"I wouldn't have known at all if I'd just gone off those first results… I got lucky that the breast surgeon felt that something wasn't right."

Sam found out that she had multiple tumours.

After her diagnosis in February, she started chemotherapy three weeks later. She has since undergone immunotherapy, a lumpectomy and 15 rounds of radiation.

Sam had to take a break from her role on Getaway and the experience of chemo has been extremely taxing on the presenter's mind and body.

"My whole world sort of turned upside down because literally everything changed. I'd find myself just lying in bed, couldn't get up, couldn't drop the kids at school, couldn't do anything because of treatment with the chemo. Some nights I think I vomited for about 10 hours straight. It was very, very intense," she said.

"My husband said he would look over at me and I'd just be staring at the wall. I couldn't watch TV. I couldn't listen to the radio because I was just out of it. It was nice to get that part over with."

Sam said that her husband Ben, who works for the Australian Air Force, has been a huge pillar of support throughout the journey.

"We've been together for 17 years now, since I was about 21. I think having that history together, you think you've seen it all, but then cancer comes along and changes things," Sam said.

"He takes it on the chin and doesn't complain. He's just been so amazing through this whole process and taking me to appointments… It is very hard on a relationship. We just know that we will get through it."

Watch a breast cancer survivor share her 'little love story' on This Glorious Mess. Post continues after video. 

When deciding how to tell her two young sons, Wilder and Ari, about her diagnosis, she consulted with a McGrath Breast Care Nurse to discuss how to approach it.

"They're 7 and 5, and we just really talk to them in age-appropriate terms," she said.

"It does say that you do need to use the word cancer and tell them because it's best to come from you, not to hear it from someone else, or another child on the playground."

Sam ended up telling her sons, "This is mummy's cancer, and this is how we're treating it. This is the medicine, it's the medicine that will make my hair fall out, but it's good medicine because it's going to get rid of it, and it's just gonna be a year. My hair will grow back and I'll be feeling good next year."

It took a while for her sons to get used to the change of routine, with loved ones enlisted to help with school dropoff and pickup.

"It was really hard for them to understand. My youngest took it probably the hardest because he's my little sidekick. He was sort of attached to me 24/7," he said.

"It did take a couple of months for them to sort of wrap their heads around it. Then we got into a routine, so they got used to it… unfortunately, it just became our normal life and our reality."

The next stage is for Sam to get double mastectomy surgery and a reconstruction which is scheduled for the end of January. Throughout the experience, Sam found out she had the BRCA2 gene which increases her chance of getting breast cancer.

"I've kind of been the guinea pig for my whole family but it does mean that now everyone can get tested, which is really wonderful," she said.

"Like my cousins, my auntie, my sisters, my mum… they can take preventative initiatives if they want to. That's been a positive thing to come out of my terrible experience that all of my family can be on top of it."

"I got lucky that the breast surgeon felt that something wasn't right." Image: Instagram/@samimcclymont. 

Despite going through this journey for over a year, Sam only recently shared her diagnosis with her online followers.

"Cancer can be really overwhelming, and sometimes I just don't have the capacity to share a lot either. But I felt like I wanted to," she said.

"I didn't want to feel like I was doing it alone, either. I wanted to let people know this is what I would be doing, this is what I'm going through. I'm so glad I did because the amount of support you have in this community, it just wraps itself around you to support you."

She's ended up connecting with a beautiful community of women who have helped her by sharing side effects and coping techniques.

Sam emphasised that she didn't decide to share her misdiagnosis as a way to make people mistrust their doctors.

"I hope I don't scare people that I was misdiagnosed because I do think that's quite rare," she said.

"But you do have to trust yourself and to follow up if you feel that something's not right. It is your health, it's your body, and you should do what you need to feel comfortable."

Despite her challenging year, Sam has reminded herself that sometimes you have to make sacrifices in the short term to ensure the long term.

"It is a long journey, and I have to remind myself of something beautiful that my oncologist said, and he just said, 'Give me 1 year so you can have 50 more.'

"I haven't worked all year, and you just feel like: where has this year gone? But that's what I have to remind myself: you'll be able to have 50 more wonderful years, or more or less.

"I've got a whole life ahead of me, and it's just this one hard year." Feature image: Instagram/@samimcclymont.