Veteran Neil Ferriby thought breast cancer was something only women get
An ‘invincible’ RAF veteran who thought he’d simply pulled a muscle in his chest was horrified when it turned out to be breast cancer.(Image: Breast Cancer Now)
An RAF veteran who thought he’d pulled a muscle in his chest was horrified when it turned out to be breast cancer. When Neil Ferriby’s right nipple became sensitive and grew a marble-sized lump he brushed it off as a pulled muscle for almost two months.
The 43 year old, who braved RAF campaigns in Northern Ireland, Cyprus and Iraq, thought men of his age couldn’t get breast cancer. When a pal convinced him to get checked out in February 2025 doctors revealed the news he had three cancerous tumours around his chest.
The dad of two had a life-saving operation to remove his stage two breast cancer in April, which removed 13 lymph nodes and the tumours, before undergoing chemotherapy for seven months. He says 12 years as an RAF vehicle driver from age 18 gave him an ‘invincible’ attitude but now he’s cancer free he wants to highlight men can get breast cancer too.
Neil, from Hull, said: “I didn’t think there could be anything wrong because I thought only women or men over 60 could get breast cancer. One night I got into bed, my nipple touched the sheets and I said ‘oh my God that’s like an electric shock’ and felt a lump. It really stung.
“I’d been working outside in the garden so I thought I’d hit myself in the chest with a piece of wood or I’d most likely pulled something. I could feel a ball to the right of my nipple and by the end of January it seemed to get bigger. I had a friend over and I asked her to feel it, then she asked me how long it had been there and told me to get it checked out. Being in the waiting room, they’d call out my name and you’d hear a pin drop because it’s all women in there.
“I joined the RAF to protect people. It’s a mindset and we’re a forces family. You feel a bit invincible. It’s strange to have something that seemed such a feminine thing to me before.”
Neil says that when his doctor referred him for tests he asked to stay informed because he’d never seen a man of his age have breast cancer. The dad says he even had difficulty using the mammogram machine because it’s the same one they use for women who generally have larger breasts.
While in the RAF he was posted to Cyprus between 2002-2003, Northern Ireland in 2003-2006 and then in Iraq from 2006-2007. Neil, who was nicknamed Furby in the force, says his camps faced 200 rocket attacks during his four months in Iraq and his experience there and in Northern Ireland left him with PTSD.
He left the RAF in 2013 and worked in security until 2020 when he briefly drove for an events company until health issues including fibromyalgia forced him to retire later that year. His cancer is believed to be hormone-related so Neil requires preventative treatment for at least 10 years and must visit hospital three times a week to check his body is reacting well.
Neil will be the only bloke strutting his stuff in a Breast Cancer Now charity fashion show in May, where 24 people who have or have had the disease will take to the catwalk. He also runs a charity bingo night at his local pub in Hull every Tuesday and plans to travel across Europe handing out breast cancer awareness leaflets to men in their native languages.
Neil says: “I can’t dwell on what’s happened. Without the research into this I could have been dead by now so I want to raise awareness of breast cancer, but most importantly breast cancer in males.
“I felt quite embarrassed at the time but I want to stop people feeling that. If I can save one person who has a lump and gets it checked out then I’ve done what I’ve set out to do. I can’t work now as I can’t drive HGVs because of my health and nobody will employ me because I’ve got to be at the hospital three times a week.”
Breast cancer in men is rare and accounts for less than one per cent of all cases, with roughly 400 cases being diagnosed in the UK annually. All men produce small amounts of the hormone called oestrogen but high levels in men have been linked to an increased risk of getting breast cancer.
The most common type of breast cancer in both women and men is called invasive breast cancer but men can also develop rarer types of breast cancer. The most common symptoms include a lump in the breast that is nearly always painless, oozing discharge from the nipple and a nipple that is pulled into the breast, called nipple retraction. Others include a rash, swelling and an ulcer on the breast, while a lump or swelling under the arm is also a troubling sign.