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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTBS) — Get out your pink… October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. The month long effort to increase awareness started in 19-85. At that time it was only one week long. Since then there’s been significant progress in treatment and education.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women and is easily treated if its found early.
I had an InDepth conversation with a woman from Bossier who noticed a lump during a breast self exam… it was cancer.
Karen Squires and Tywana Wright have been friends for 15 years. For Karen, how she looks on the outside is as important as how she feels on the inside.
She says, “I’m very healthy, work out eat right.”
That includes a breast self exam every month. “My mom was that way… my mother would just always drill that in my head but, it doesn’t run in my family.”
But, Wright on the other hand says, “Unlike Karen, did not want to have a breast exam. I had been a few times and thought it was very painful. So I thought, I’m not going to do that anymore, I don’t know anyone who has breast cancer so it’s not going to be me.”
Despite her doctor’s prompting and Karen’s, Tywana would NOT go for a mammogram. “But, I was so chicken and I just didn’t want to do it.”
Finally, Tywana made up her mind. She would go and get a mammogram. She went to Christus Bossier Emergency Hospital, “Of course I walked in scared to death. I went to the new facility at Schumpert. I told them what a chicken I was and when I came out they all clapped for me.”
She finally did it! Karen was the first person she called because she did it FOR Karen. “If she (Karen) could walk through life and go through the treatment she’s gone through and loose her hair and be completely bald, and I just didn’t want to go have my boob smashed. Who wouldn’t want to do that for their friend.”
It was Karen’s strength through the 7 weeks of radiation, even loosing her hair that touched Tywana. “I watched her hold her head up high but still go through the process that you go through when you’re going through chemo. Karen: She bought me my first wig for me. (Laughs) Yeah, I did.”
By the way, Tywana’s mammogram came back clear. She laughs because she says Karen’s the healthy one.
Karen laughs too, “When they did the biopsy and told me it was malignant it surprised me. I don’t smoke, work out, do everything I need to do to take care of myself.”
There’s also no family history of breast cancer. About 85-percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history. Experts say breast cancer can be caused by genetic mutations as we age and because of life in general. In fact, experts say the most significant risk factors are being a woman and growing older, “Cancer does not care. It doesn’t care who you are. It doesn’t say oh you’re healthy we’re going to leave you alone. No, it doesn’t work that way,” says Karen.
Breast cancer is the second most common form of cancer in Louisiana and Arkansas. It’s the number one form of cancer in Texas.
Because she caught it early, Karen was able to have the lump removed and is Cancer Free. And for Tywana she’s planning to have a mammogram every year and encouraging other women to do the same. “It’s the easiest thing you can do and early detection… if you can catch it – it can help people.”
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