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For most new mothers it can be devastating if their baby refuses to breastfeed. But for Sarah Boyle, a 26-year-old call center worker, she believes it saved her life. Her son Teddy, now 1, would scream when she tried to feed him with her right breast.

Boyle was concerned and went to see her doctor where she was referred to get a scan and biopsy. She discovered a lump that turned out to be a benign cyst that had been growing for three months. After two weeks she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"Teddy is my hero - if it hadn't been for him I would never have suspected I had cancer," she said.

New Zealand Herald reported Teddy was born in February last year, five months after her son could tell the milk from her right breast was different and he rejected it. She would offer him that breast and he would completely freak out and scream. Breastfeeding helps a mother and a baby bond, it indicated that Teddy was trying to tell her something was wrong.

In November last year, Boyle had an ultrasound scan at Royal Stoke University Hospital. Two weeks later her she had a biopsy and was diagnosed with am extremely rare disease known as grade 2 triple negative breast cancer. She was told to stop breastfeeding and started chemotherapy.

According to Daily Mail, triple negative breast cancer is a type of breast cancer that does not have receptors for oestrogen and progesterone hormones, or the protein HER2. It is common with women under 40. Treatment is a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Sarah lives with her husband Steven, 28, in Staffordshire. She is now halfway through her chemotherapy treatment. She is now planning to have a double mastectomy with immediate breast reconstruction surgery.

"I never imagined that I would be diagnosed with cancer so young but the hospital have been fantastic," said Boyle.