A British tourist was stunned to learn she had breast cancer after a photo opportunity at a museum picked up on the presence of a tumor.
Bal Gill, a 41-year-old mother from Berkshire, England, visited Camera Obscura & World of Illusions in Edinburgh, Scotland, during a family vacation in May 2019 and later wrote to the museum to share how one of its attractions may have saved her life.
"I visited with my family in May 2019 during the school holidays," Gill explained, the museum revealed in a press release. "We had been to Edinburgh Castle and on the way down we saw the museum. While making our way through the floors we got to the thermal imaging camera room."
According to the museum, the thermal camera offers guests "the chance to see just how hot, or cold you are" — and for Gill, the attraction revealed a surprising hot spot on her chest.
"As all families do, we entered and started to wave our arms and look at the images created," she said. "While doing this I noticed a heat patch (red in color) coming from my left breast. We thought it was odd and having looked at everyone else they didn't have the same. I took a picture and we carried on and enjoyed the rest of the museum."
After Gill and her family returned home to England, she came across the image again in her camera roll and decided to do some digging on thermal imaging and the possible significance of the hot spot.
She discovered that thermography, also called thermal imaging, is a tool used by breast cancer specialists that utilizes a special, noninvasive camera to measure the temperature of the skin on the breast's surface.
Since cancer cells are growing and multiplying at a rapid rate, blood flow and metabolism are higher in cancerous tumors than in non-affected areas of the body. As blood flow and metabolism increase, skin temperature goes up, which is how thermal cameras can detect cancer's presence.
"At this point, I searched on Google to see what this could mean and I saw a lot of articles about breast cancer and thermal imaging cameras," Gill recalled. "I made an appointment with the doctor and as it turns out I do have breast cancer, thankfully really early stages. I have now had two surgeries and have one to go to prevent it from spreading."
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