At only 31 years of age, Tauranga's Larissa Allen has discovered she has the 'unicorn” of breast cancers, with only one option available to her.

Listen to Larissa talk about her journey on the latest podcast on BuzzWorthy.co.nz or continue reading her story below.

'My partner found the lump in the bottom of my breast quite a few months ago and I just kind of passed it off as being like a blocked milk duct,” says the 2016 Miss Universe New Zealand runner-up.

With no known family history of breast cancer, she continued working, flying to Australia for a modelling job, acting, and being involved with establishing a film production company.

'It took a good couple of months before I got into the doctors. It got dramatically bigger to the point where I was like: ‘Oh, that's a bit strange'. My boyfriend was on my case so I made an appointment.”

Her GP's expression told her something wasn't right.

'As soon as she felt it, I could see it on her face.”

Within two weeks, an ultrasound, mammogram and biopsy all happened on the same day.

'The results came back within three days, my GP called me in and told me I had breast cancer.”

Life quickly changing

Diagnosed on August 5, Larissa found her life quickly changing day-by-day during August and September, dealing with doubt and uncertainty about the future for herself and her son Carter, age 4.

'I can't fault the care that I've received, from the moment I was diagnosed to now. They've been so good, I've had a CT scan of my chest, abdomen and pelvis.”

She's also had an MRI scan of her whole body mainly targeting bones and brain, and an MRI scan of her breasts. 'All of which came back showing the cancer hadn't spread, which is amazing news.”

Larissa Allen undergoing a scan. Photo: supplied.

The tough news followed. She has metaplastic cancer, found in under one per cent of all breast cancer cases.

'It's a really rare and aggressive form of breast cancer that they don't have enough research on and so they don't really know how to treat it. I know I'm Grade 3 which means fast, aggressive growing.”

The pathology report has confirmed it is triple negative metaplastic breast cancer, meaning it won't be responsive to hormone treatment.

'I'm so grateful that I was seen so quickly, but then also at the same time, sad for others that don't.”

Connecting with Tauranga's Breast Cancer Support Service, and joining online Facebook groups, she's become an active part of a breast cancer support community.

'It's a very supportive community, probably not one that you want belong to, but, when you have to, it's a pretty cool community to be part of.”

Documenting her journey

Larissa's also documenting her journey on social media, with the hope it helps others.

'I love to promote body positivity, especially for women. There's so much self-doubt in a woman's mind about their bodies and embracing being a woman.”

A friend met her on the beach for a photoshoot before she underwent a single mastectomy, timelessly capturing her body before any surgery or chemotherapy.

'I feel like I'm a ticking time bomb just waiting for it to go off and I don't know when it's going to go off. That can be a little unsettling but you always try to remain hopeful. The biggest help to get me through the past weeks is that I've tried so hard to keep my positivity up and keep a good mental state of mind, just keeping that as healthy as I can, because at the moment I don't have control over anything else.”

Mid-August she joined her film crew in the Vista 48Hours film competition, winning the ‘Best Performer' category for the Bay of Plenty, now heading to the national finals on November 18.

October brought more tough news. 'I have the rarest subtype of my rare type of breast cancer – Metaplastic Chondroid Carcinoma. It is the unicorn of breast cancers.”

Larissa says there is only one option available. 'A trial of a lower-dosed chemotherapy given once-a-week for 12 weeks. The study is so small – nine women with the same type of cancer as me – but all nine women were alive without cancer at five years. So I have hope that I can be number 10.”

She starts chemotherapy this week. 'I'm no stranger to having to fight to be strong. It sounds strange, but this is probably the best time in my life to be diagnosed with breast cancer because I am the strongest I've ever been mentally and physically. After my divorce, a light just flicked on. I became so much more confident within myself and found my spark again.”

She says 'life is good, life is great”.

Worthy

'I realised that I was worthy of all these things that I thought that I wasn't. I really appreciated myself more and started to put more focus on doing things that I loved, like acting and producing, and taking time out of my day to nourish my body, go for walks on the beach or go to the gym – all these little things that I wasn't doing prior. I lost 30kg and my mental clarity was through the roof.

'I was in such a good place and then I got told I had breast cancer, so it's like I was on a really good train trip and then it just got stopped on the tracks.”

Larissa Allen with partner Chris Power. Photo: supplied.

Larissa believes every woman should be visiting their GP annually for a breast check-up, and doing monthly self-checks, not waiting until they're 45 for the funded mammogram. Already one woman has contacted her after reading her online blog, and decided to have her lump checked, only to discover she too has breast cancer.

'I feel like you're only ever given something that you can handle and there's always a reason for it. I've always liked to do things that have a positive impact on the world. My way of doing that is to talk about it openly and normalise it. To say: ‘Hey this is happening a lot and this is what you can do about it to catch it early'.”

Driving force

Larissa says her biggest driving force in staying alive is her son Carter.

'When you're told you've got cancer, it feels like you're given a death sentence. You know you're going to die, you just don't know when. So the biggest thought for me was how is Carter going to be? I can't leave someone so little without a mum. I have to stay alive for him.”

Larissa is finding the support and love surrounding her to be immense.

'I couldn't do it without everyone. I'm going to fight my hardest to live as long as I can past all the silly stats.”

A friend has set up a Givealittle page to support Larissa at: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/people-of-nz-and-beyond-lets-wrap-our-arms-around

Listen to Larissa talk about her journey in the latest health podcast on BuzzWorthy. Click on the photo below for more.