Working out what changes mean by ethnic group and generation
| BA | BC | WB | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Working out what changes mean | First generation | Second generation | First generation | Second generation | NA |
| Difficulty appraising symptoms | |||||
| Operating as a barrier? | Yes | No | For some | For some | For some |
| “It wasn't disturbing me then it started paining me, then it started growing bigger but I didn't go…I don't know if it's cancer or infection or something because I don't know anything about cancer.” (19BA, 43 years, 6 months) | “My mother's side, we had cancer and my father had it too. I'm inquisitive so I knew lumps can be cancer…so, when I felt the lump in my breast I said, “What is this?” And I moved straight away. I didn't wait.” (47BA, 43 years, 1 day) | “I thought well it's not getting bigger and it doesn't hurt so can't be anything really serious.” (16BC, 57 years, 3 months) | “I felt a stabbing pain and it hurt a bit and I thought ‘oh!’ Anything goes wrong that's not normal I always go to the doctor.” (4BC, 50 years, 1 week) | “What I first noticed it, there wasn't ever a lump…It was literally months and months and months that I noticed that there was a difference…and also I'm approaching menopause as well so I didn't really know.” (28WB, 49 years, more than 3 months but uncertain how long) | |
| Not disclosing symptoms to another person or disclosing to someone with poor cancer knowledge | |||||
| Operating as a barrier? | Yes | No | For some | No | No |
| “When I told him [her husband] he say I should relax and not stress myself too much…we say it's a cold. Because of that I had to buy an electric blanket to use it to sleep, thinking that maybe cold had entered my lungs. We thought it's just a ordinary or something like that.” (3BA, first generation, 30 years, 1 year) | “I told my husband, the family. They were very sympathetic, ‘don't worry, go and get it checked out and see what they say, you've got to get it checked out’. That was the main instruction and then you'll know…it does have an influence because you have support.” (26BA, second generation, 45 years, 1 week) | “I didn't tell anyone else because I'm only concerned with medical opinions and I didn't want anyone to worry until I knew what I was dealing with.” (32BC, first generation, 50 years, 3 days) | “I told my husband about it because I wanted his support but I didn't tell my mum or friends because they'd start worrying…I didn't want them to worry unnecessarily.” (48BC, second generation, 48 years, 9 weeks) | “I let him feel it and he said to me yes there's definitely a lump there. I didn't want to think I was going mad and it was just me that could feel it but no he could feel it as well and my mum had a feel and she could feel it…I had decided to go to my GP anyway though.” (57WB, 37 years, 3 days) | |
BA, Black African; BC, Black Caribbean; GP, general practitioner; WB, White British.