Four years ago, Deanna Wilson found a lump in her breast and brought her concerns to her family doctor in Fife, Scotland.
She had been carefully monitoring the lump on her own for about six weeks before she scheduled the visit with her doctor, so when the GP told her to "go home and come back in six weeks to have it revisited," she was stunned.
The 35-years-old newlywed appeared by all sense of the word to be young and healthy. Her doctor dismissed her concerns, informing her that "people your age don't get cancer."
Wilson had to practically beg her doctor to refer her to a specialist for further investigation. Reluctantly, the GP scheduled her for a more thorough investigation, but marked her case as "low priority."
Unfortunately, her doctor couldn't have been more wrong...
"She said as I was leaving, 'remember to cancel your appointment when the lump goes away to not waste their time.'" says Wilson.
"I was marked as a low priority or a non-urgent patient, so it took a long time to be seen," Wilson told the Daily Mail.
By the time she was finally seen by a specialist, her disease had progressed. Now, the breast cancer has spread to her liver and bones, badly damaging her hips and spine.
Experts have given her six months to three years to live.
Not long after Wilson's diagnosis, her mother and sister were tested for the same cancer-causing gene. When it was discovered that they each had it, both women underwent double mastectomies and had their ovaries removed as a preventative measure.
After her diagnosis, Wilson says her doctor apologized, but it was too little too late.
"Had I been sent sooner, would I be sitting here now?" she wonders.
"The GP I was seeing called me and apologized when she learned of the diagnosis," says Wilson, "All I could say to her was, please don't let this happen to anyone else. I now tell my friends, you need to be an advocate for your own health. You know your own body."
Now, she and her husband are raising money to pay for treatment through a Just Giving campaign. Supporters have raised over £7,195.