I never thought I would get breast cancer. In fact, the idea never crossed my mind until I felt a lump. I hear this story time and time again where women are "too young" to have breast cancer. However, according to an article published in October, 2019 from Yale Medical, 11% of women under the age of 45 develop breast cancer. In fact, breast cancer is the number one cancer among women between ages 19 and 39. Interestingly, the National Breast Cancer Foundation posits that 15% of breast cancers are triple negative breast (ER/PR and HER2 Negative) and typically occur in younger women.
While we can google and read about triple negative breast cancer, we thought we'd take time today to speak with two women who have been diagnosed with TNBC in the 20's and 30's and have them share their first hand experience.

SBC: Sara and Caitlin, thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your experience with triple negative breast cancer. As two women diagnosed at a young age, I would like to share with our readers a bit more about your diagnosis, your treatments, advice you have to others who are recently diagnosed and how you are doing now!
Let’s dive in.
Tell me a bit about your diagnosis, type, stage, age when diagnosed?
Sara: I was 27 years old; 2 months shy of 28. I was initially diagnosed at stage 2a (no
lymph node involvement); triple negative. This was the lump I initially found and
got checked out. An MRI revealed a tiny spot in my other breast, which was biopsied. This was stage 0 due to size, but was not completely triple negative- a very low amount of one of the hormones (I can't remember which!) Treated as triple negative and the tumor board revisited my case after treatment and concluded I did not need hormone therapy for the little bit that was present. I also tested positive for the BRCA1 genetic mutation.
Caitlin: I was diagnosed at age 30; 1 month before I turned 31. I Diagn