Heat Camera at Tourist Attraction Catches Woman's Breast Cancer

Instead of leaving with a flimsy trinket, this woman walked away with a potentially life-saving heads up.

A woman visiting an optics tourist attraction discovered she had breast cancer after posing for a thermal camera.

Bal Gill, 41, was visiting Camera Obscura & World of Illusions in Scotland in May, when she stopped for the seemingly innocent pic; but checking the snap later she noticed a strange heat source emanating from just one of her breasts.

Curious, she began searching the Internet — which was when she discovered oncologists use thermal imaging to locate tumors.

"I visited with my family in May 2019 during the school holidays," Gill wrote in a letter afterwards to the popular Edinburgh tourist spot." 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. As all families do, we entered and started to wave our arms and look at the images created. While doing this I noticed a heat patch (red in colour) coming from my left breast.

She continued: "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."

"A few days later when we returned home I was flicking through my pictures and I saw the image. 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 made an appointment with her doctor, who confirmed the scary news; but thankfully he told her that the cancer was in its very early stages.

She confirmed she has since undergone two surgeries, with a third scheduled, to prevent it from spreading.

"I just wanted to say thank you: without that camera, I would never have known," she wrote in her letter. "I know it's not the intention of the camera but for me, it really was a life-changing visit. I cannot tell you enough about how my visit to the Camera Obscura changed my life."

Andrew Johnson, General Manager of Camera Obscura & World of Illusions said: "We did not realise that our Thermal Camera had the potential to detect life-changing symptoms in this way."

"We were really moved when Bal contacted us to share her story as breast cancer is very close to home for me and a number of our team. It's amazing that Bal noticed the difference in the image and crucially acted on it promptly," he added.

"We wish her all the best with her recovery and hope to meet her and her family in the future."

Thermal imaging is able to spot tumors because cancer cells can grow and multiply so fast, it actually increases skin temperature.

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