Charity calls for younger women to 'self-check' amid 26% rise in breast cancer among women aged 20 to 49

From left: Patient and breast cancer survivor Ciara Foskin; Taoiseach Micheál Martin; director of nursing at the Marie Keating Foundation Helen Forristal; and medical director at Exact Sciences Dr Sarah Reynia at at the launch of the Marie Keating Foundation campaign to encourage women to self-check for breast cancer. Picture: Sam Boal/Collins

There has been a 26% increase in breast cancer diagnosis among women aged 20 to 49 in less than a decade in Ireland, and one of those women affected has called for the rising rates to be examined. 

Ciara Foskin is a mother, a sea-swimmer, a poet, but also a breast cancer survivor, having received her “horrendous” diagnosis aged only 46.