Sisters both diagnosed with breast cancer just six weeks apart after spotting same symptom

Sisters both diagnosed with breast cancer just six weeks apart after spotting same symptom Aisling Muckian and Áine Mallie were both diagnosed with advanced breast cancer just weeks apart and the Irish sisters have now spoken about their difficult experiences in the last year Two brave sisters have opened up about being diagnosed with breast cancer just six weeks apart. Aisling Muckian and Áine Mallie were completely shocked after getting the cruel disease so young — but the siblings supported one another as they both went through chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Their nightmare began when Aisling, who was just 31 at the time, found a lump in April 2025. Speaking on Ireland AM, she said: “Just obviously a massive shock. It’s not something I thought would be part of my life. Obviously, I’m sure everybody feels that way, but certainly not at my age. “I was perfectly fit. I was exercising. I was eating healthily. I was working nine to five. I have two little kids. You know, everything was kind of normal, I suppose.” After initially finding the lump, the mum, who was feeling tired but put it down to having a one and a three-year-old, didn’t think much of it, and presumed it was either a small cyst or muscle related. As a precaution she got it checked before eventually being diagnosed with stage three grade three ER-positive breast cancer. “Even when I was told, it didn’t really sink in,” she said. “Even now when I look back, obviously we’re kind of one year on now, it still doesn’t feel real, you know.” The sisters, both mothers from Silverbridge, County Armagh in Northern Ireland, were hit by another shock just weeks later. Áine, 34 at the time, was horrified to then find a lump on her own breast, and she instinctively knew it was cancer. She remembered: “Aisling maybe spent a couple of weeks thinking that everything was all right. When I found my lump, it was literally two weeks after Aisling’s diagnosis. So, I did automatically think, ‘Oh my goodness, this could be the same.’” Áine asked her younger sister if she could inspect her lump, and although it appeared different to hers, she added: “I knew in my heart when I felt hers that mine was the same, to be honest.” After being diagnosed with a grade three, oestrogen and progesterone receptor positive breast cancer, it was also revealed that Áine’s had already spread to her lymph nodes, and the sisters then faced challenging treatments together. Áine, who had a single mastectomy, said she “benefited slightly more” because her chemotherapy and operation was six weeks behind Aisling’s — meaning she was able to get her advice on both. Aisling meanwhile, who had a single mastectomy with reconstruction, revealed: “I think a cancer diagnosis can be very lonely. And one silver lining was that we went through it together, you know, and it I supposed reduced that loneliness side of it.” She also said it helped her being able to reassure her sister, who like her has since been diagnosed with the BRCA2 gene, that she would be able to get through the chemotherapy by explaining how she felt throughout each stage. Dr Sonja Bobart also joined in on the discussion and she said that men and women of all ages should be checking their bodies every single month. And as regards to symptoms of breast cancer specifically and what to look out for, she added: “So it’s not always a lump and as Aisling and Áine did, they checked themselves. “But also look at your skin changes. So, are there any changes in terms of a rash, any redness, any heat that could be in either breast? Look at the breast in terms of the size. “Compare one breast from the next. Are they the same? Look at the nipple. Is there any discharge retraction? Any eczema type sensation within the nipple? So anything that looks abnormal, get checked. “And sometimes, people who do have a slight discomfort, not necessarily pain, but if you’ve got slight discomfort, always get that checked because lumps aren’t as Aisling said, they weren’t painful. They were painless. And that’s sometimes a suspicious sign.”