A Sydney businesswoman has revealed how a fleeting itch on a Friday night saved her life after leading to a shock breast-cancer diagnosis at just 38.
Claire Yellowlees, founder of the clean-fragrance brand [noun] Collection, told the Daily Mail she had been working late on her laptop on August 30 last year when she felt what she calls her 'lucky itch'.
'I literally had an itch - just a one-off itch,' she said.
'It wasn't a symptom of anything. I scratched it for two seconds, went back to my keyboard, but I felt something. I know my body quite well, and I thought, was that my mole? But it felt in the wrong place.'
Curious, she reached back down.
'I found the mole - and then realised that wasn't where I itched. About a centimetre lower, I felt a lump. It didn't hurt when I pushed it. But my stomach knotted up instantly.'
She stood in front of her mirror and checked both breasts.
'There was no matching lump. I definitely knew something was there.'
A Sydney businesswoman has revealed how a single, fleeting itch on a Friday night saved her life - leading to a shock breast-cancer diagnosis at just 38, despite having no symptoms and feeling 'fit and healthy'
Claire Yellowlees, founder of the clean-fragrance brand [noun] Collection, told the Daily Mail she had been working late at her laptop on August 30 last year when she felt what she calls her 'lucky itch'
Claire phoned her mother immediately.
'The first thing I said was "I'm trying not to freak out". Neither of us wanted to say the C-word because it would have made it more real.'
Claire saw a GP the following week, who referred her for an ultrasound. She expected reassurance - or at least more tests.
Instead, the next doctor she saw went silent.
'I could see his energy change. He went very serious. I knew something was wrong with the way his body language shifted when he looked at my chart,' she said.
What came next was devastating.
'He said, "I don't really know how to say this, but it's not good news... it's 98 per cent cancer". I felt like I stopped breathing.'
Claire, who considered herself 'a very healthy person', said she almost went into a panic attack as the doctor began talking about surgeons and treatment paths.
'I found the mole - and then realised that wasn't where I itched. About a centimetre lower, I felt a lump. It didn't hurt when I pushed it. But my stomach knotted up instantly,' Claire said
Claire, who considered herself 'a very healthy person', said she almost went into a panic attack as the doctor began talking about surgeons and treatment paths
'It was like white noise around me. I felt underwater. I couldn't hear myself think.'
The doctor then said something she will never forget.
'He told me, "Don't worry, you've probably got at least ten years if we've caught it early". I thought, ten years doesn't even get me to fifty. That's not comforting for someone who's 38.'
From that moment, Claire said life became 'a new full-time job'.
'There wasn't any downtime. I was suddenly at medical appointments almost every day.'
On October 1 - Breast Cancer Awareness Day - she underwent her first lumpectomy.
Two weeks later she received mixed results: her lymph nodes were clear, but her tumour margins were not. Doctors also found DCIS cells - early cancer cells that would later form a tumour.
And then came the second blow.
'Originally it was a grade 2 tumour, but after the full pathology they told me it was actually grade 3. Much more aggressive. They said I was too young not to risk chemo.'
Because chemotherapy can cause infertility - and Claire had not yet had children - doctors insisted she begin IVF immediately.
'There was almost no room to breathe. I started IVF that same day.'
The following weeks were a blur of hormone injections, scans, egg retrievals - and another surgery.
At one point, her IVF and cancer surgeries almost collided.
'There was talk nurses might have to give me my trigger injection while I was under anaesthetic for my second lumpectomy. That’s how close everything was.'
After IVF, Claire was placed on Zoladex - a drug that shuts the ovaries down completely to protect fertility during chemo.
'My body went from being super fertile one minute to being switched off the next. It threw me into menopause. Hot flushes, brain fog, mood swings, everything.'
Then came chemotherapy.
'At times it felt like my body was shutting down. There were days where I genuinely felt like I was dying.'
She suffered neuropathy, severe joint pain, rashes, nausea, peeling skin and crushing exhaustion.
And through it all, she was also trying to keep her young business alive.
'I was doing a pop-up at Westfield. I’d be in the baby-change room giving myself injections, then coming back out and serving customers with a brave face.'
The emotional fallout, she says, was worse than the physical.
'I had no idea how intrusive it would be. It became a full-time job overnight. I wasn’t prepared for how much it would take over my life.'
By the time she finished radiation in April this year, she felt like 'a complete shell'.
Travel and reconnecting with friends at home and in New York, London, and Ibiza eventually helped her 'find [herself] again'
'You finish treatment and suddenly you're just at home again. You're no longer going to hospital every day. I didn't feel like myself. I had no motivation. I was slipping into depression.'
She told her oncologist she was struggling, but the cause was clear.
'Chemo can physically cause depression. Zoladex causes depression. Menopause causes depression. It was inevitable I was going to go through it.'
At her lowest point, she admits she had a frightening thought.
'There was a moment where I thought, maybe I've had a good life. Maybe that's that. I just couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.'
Travel and reconnecting with friends in New York, London, and Ibiza eventually helped her 'find [herself] again'.
Claire is now back running her fragrance brand - which was founded on principles of avoiding toxic ingredients.
And after everything she's endured, Claire is using her platform to urge younger women to check themselves regularly.
'I don't want people to be scared, but women under 40 can get breast cancer. Early detection is absolutely the key to survival.'
She still can't quite believe how close she came to missing it.
'If it wasn't for that lucky itch, I don't know when I would have found mine.'
Claire is relaunching her [noun] Collection with a refreshed identity and a message she wants every woman in Australia to hear: take two minutes to check your breasts this Breast Friday.
'This campaign is about awareness and self-care,' Claire said.
'Yes, it's a sale - but more importantly, it's a reminder. Those two minutes could save your life, not just money.'
The Breast Friday event will run across the [noun] Collection online store from 26 November to 1 December, offering 30 per cent off and pledging one per cent of profits to the McGrath Foundation.
Alongside the discounts sits a clear goal: to get women talking about breast health and to make early detection part of everyday life.
All [noun] Collection fragrances are clean, gender-neutral and made with ethically sourced ingredients—a philosophy Claire says became non-negotiable after her diagnosis.
She wants customers to feel confident about what they’re putting on their skin—and into their bodies.
'I’ve come back with a new look and a stronger sense of purpose,' she said.
'This isn’t just about a feel-good fragrance—it’s about feeling empowered, and feeling your breasts to make sure everything’s okay.'