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What started as a normal day quickly took a dramatic turn when 13-year-old Tamika Thompson stood in front of her mirror and noticed that her left breast looked slightly abnormal.

After recognising the imperfection, she began to inspect the area and discovered a small lump. Thompson did not hesitate to tell her mother, resulting in a visit to the doctor and weeks later, Thompson's first major surgery. After that, the doctor told Thompson that she was fine because the lump showed no sign of breast cancer.

But at age 14, Thompson discovered a new lump in the same area, resulting in another surgery which once again showed that a benign lump. Like any normal teenager she gladly went on with her life, until age 16 when she recognised that the lump, now much bigger, had returned.

"So when you see me, you see me with one side heavier than one, so my mom decided to change doctors and we did a surgery in April ... it came back cancerous," Thompson said. Upon hearing this news, she was understandably overcome with emotions.

"At that time I was shocked, because I went to the doctor alone that evening because my mom was at work and I was very shocked. My doctor had to call my mom at work to let her know what was happening," she said. By the 23rd of that month, Thompson had to do a mastectomy, a procedure to completely remove her left breast.

"I didn't know how to deal with it at the time. I was a bit ashamed, was shy, I was scared, everything you think a 16- year-old would go through hearing something like that," Thompson said. But her struggle with cancer did not end there.

"In my 20s I got another scare when I went for check-up so I had to do another surgery. I ended up doing five surgeries and came out with six cuts. So the last surgery that I did, they found a lump at my neck and one more at the same spot (left breast). But thanks be to God, from then I've been good," said the now 46-year-old mother of two.

Thompson added that the battle with the disease fully transformed her life, causing much emotional distress.

"Growing up I'm like this person who loved to wear belly skin, alter back. My mommy never let me behave a certain way but you know yuh little and slim and neat. So after the surgery, I was like I can't wear certain clothes any more'. I don't play netball any more, I don't do track and field any more. Oh my God mi nah guh have nuh boyfriend. All dem sumpn deh guh through mi head," Thompson said.

She also said that because of the disease, she was bullied by her peers in high school, making it even more difficult to accept the changes to her body. But Thompson found her strength and fell in love with her body all over again, even with her scars and missing breast. She added that battling cancer taught her many positive lessons.

"I just do what I got to do, tough it out. It was scary, but I learnt to accept that life is not a fairy tale at an early stage. So hearing the 'big C', most people will think of death, but it is a death sentence if you think that way. Once you have the support and the push and God, you can beat it. It can be beaten," Thompson said.

It is recommended by health specialists that women do annual mammograms, starting at age 40. However, based on her experience Thompson suggested that the age should be lower.

"When a young person come and seh to yuh that they think they feel a lump, don't tell them not to worry. You don't know it's nothing until you do the test or whatever needs to be done," Thompson said.