A woman has told of the moment she realised she had breast cancer - thanks to her hair extensions.
Laura Larkin, from Livingston, West Lothian, was combing her 18 inch long hair with her fingers when she felt a hard lump in her right breast.
The 25-year-old likes to wear extensions for about two years so it adds length and volume to her hairstyle.
Recalling the moment, Laura said she had a new set of extension put in at WeaveDiva salon in Bathgate in early 2018.
As she ran her fingers through her hair after having a shower, she felt a lump and immediately knew something was wrong.
Laura told the Daily Star Sunday:"The lump was in a weird place under my breast, it’s not really somewhere that I would have felt it ordinarily if I wasn’t playing with my hair.
"My hair extensions at the time were really lovely and were long enough to reach the bottom of my boobs.
"I’d just got out of the shower and I was running my fingers through my hair when I reached the ends of them and brushed past my breast.
"I felt this really hard lump which I had never noticed before at the bottom of my right breast."
Laura was lucky to have found the lump and went to her GP before it was too late.
"Considering I was booked in for a lumpectomy within a week of them diagnosing me with cancer and it had already progressed to stage three, it’s scary to think what could have happened to me if I hadn’t found it when I did," she added.
"I literally rang my hairdresser and told her my hair extensions had saved my life."
Laura was only 23 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Doctors removed a 9mm lump and hoped she was clear of cancer, but a year later some more lumps were found.
Laura said: “I was in total shock. I thought I’d beaten cancer, the mammograms were coming back clear. I felt this lump and my heart just stopped. I knew the cancer was back.”
Gene tests revealed she was carrying the BRCA2 gene, commonly known as the breast cancer gene.
She decided to have a single mastectomy last month.
