Gabriela Dabrowski received a breast cancer diagnosis a year after a physician dismissed her concerns about a lump on her chest. The doubles finalist from the 2019 and 2024 instalments of Wimbledon discovered the lump during spring 2023, yet found her anxieties brushed aside by a medical expert who dismissed it as little cause for concern.

However, during a WTA-provided physical examination the next year, another doctor insisted she have the lump examined. A mammogram, ultrasound and urgent call from a radiologist demanding an immediate biopsy quickly followed, before the 33-year-old received confirmation of her breast cancer diagnosis. Discussing her condition with CNN, the Canadian said: “It turned grim very quickly.”

Despite the alarming diagnosis, Dabrowski soon received encouraging news regarding her tumour, revealing she wouldn’t require chemotherapy as her Oncotype DX score fell within acceptable limits. According to Breastcancer.org, the Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test examines gene activity patterns that influence early-stage breast cancer’s treatment response.

Dabrowski added: “I didn’t need chemo because my score was low enough and I didn’t have any spread through my lymph nodes. So I kind of was just in this mode of, ‘Okay, this was scary, but I’m also super grateful that I’m handling this quickly and I’m still at an early stage.'”

Despite undergoing treatment in 2024, which included two surgeries and a three-month break from tennis, Dabrowski remarkably secured a bronze medal in the mixed doubles at the 2024 Olympic Games with partner Felix Auger-Aliassime. However, the journey to Olympic success was anything but straightforward for Dabrowski.

Reflecting on her experience at the Paris Olympics, Dabrowski said: “Honestly, I went to sleep thinking about how I was going to survive the next day. What I was going to try to eat, hopefully I would sleep well, and if I didn’t, how I would manage that. I broke things down into very small, achievable wins… and then a good result came.”

In a conversation with Olympics.com, Dabrowski also added: “Just getting to the Olympics was a win in itself. I wasn’t sure that I would be ready to compete. Fortunately, I was ready to compete in the UK on grass, we had a really great season, then one of my best friends got married right after Wimbledon. It was this high of two months of coming back from some really tough times.”

Dabrowski, who received a six-month clear scan in November, has since been committed to promoting breast cancer awareness and its survivability following her diagnosis. She said: “I really wanted women to be able to know that, even though something like cancer is scary, if you get whatever you have checked out early, and you can handle it, breast cancer has a 99% chance of survival.

“And that was the first messaging that I saw on the flyer when I walked into the office for my mammogram: breast cancer is 99% survivable.”

According to the NHS, the tell-tale signs and symptoms of breast cancer encompass a lump or area of thickened tissue in the breast, changes to the skin such as puckering or dimpling, alterations in breast shape or size, nipple discharge, a change in the shape of a nipple and persistent pain in the breast or armpit.

Secondary breast cancer symptoms extend to persistent fatigue, diminished appetite leading to weight loss, general feelings of illness without an obvious cause, nausea or vomiting and trouble sleeping.