Breast Cancer Awareness Month-Overkill or Beneficial?

  In 1986, when I was a college senior, my then 38 year old aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer. There are many things I know now about her cancer that I didn't know then. The tumor was large and for this reason she was at an advanced stage. Statistically she should not have survived, but she did, at least for a while. Twenty years to be exact. She survived to raise a son who was then a toddler. She survived to adopt, along with her husband, a baby girl who is now a college senior. She survived to give almost twenty years of her life as  an American Cancer Society, Reach-to-Recovery volunteer. She survived to allow many of her nieces and nephews, including me, to come to know her ,not just as Aunt Jackie, but as a strong African-American woman who regularly demonstrated so many virtues and "stepped-out" on doing the right thing. Many people came to love and depend on her because of her love, wisdom and sense-of-humor.

   

You might wonder why am I sharing all of this with you and what does it have to do with breast cancer awareness month. Well, on December 17, 2006 my Aunt Jackie at the age of 58, lost her battle with breast cancer. Not from the cancer that she was initially diagnosed with in 1986, but to a new breast cancer that affected her other breast in March of 2006. What did I learn from her 20 year victory against breast cancer? That first and foremost women must take care of themselves. She imparted that to my female cousins and I regularly. "Take care of you. If you don't, who will be there to take care of your family. Remember what is really important and get that done. The other things can wait" Taking care of yourself to my Aunt Jackie meant your emotional ,spiritual and physical well-being. 

   If it had not been for research I probably would not have seen or come to learn those things from her. I am almost sure, in hind-site, that it was research that gave us those twenty years. In 1986 women at her stage ( I do believe she was a stage III) did not see five years, let-alone twenty. But it was her participation in an NSABP trail that I am sure gave us that gift. She did something that was almost unheard of at the time, she underwent a year of chemotherapy. It was that horrible, very long year that gave us the twenty. It was the research that gave us the gift of time.

  Now move ahead eighteen years, it is 2004. My cousin Stacey is thirty-two and because Aunt Jackie has taught us to care of ourselves, is urged by her gynecologist to get a mammogram. She does and it shows microcalcifications in both breasts. She undergoes biopsies and both reveal DCIS, stage 0 breast cancer. A hard pill to swallow at thirty-two; but a pill that will save her life. Would she have done this if my Aunt had not been there to instill those values? Although I cannot unequivocally show this, I believe my Aunt's influence  was tantamount. And yes here is an example of early detection saving a life. My cousin will live to raise her little boy, without the threat of death and very possibly recurrence because of early detection.

  So is Breast cancer awareness month too much? Does it create panic or does it make a difference? I look back at my Aunt Jackie's life, I look at the life of my family members and I am reminded every October of her of the lives saved and impacted upon all by a little pink ribbon.