Don't be Like My Mother
by Lois Winston
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Early
detection is key to surviving breast cancer. Ignorance is not bliss. I can’t
stress how important it is for women to have yearly mammograms.
My grandmother had breast cancer. Knowing this, you’d
think my mother would have been proactive, but she wasn’t. Every year her
doctor would give her a prescription for a mammogram, and every year she’d toss
that prescription in the trash. I had no idea she never went for mammograms
until the day she called to tell me she had breast cancer.
Because she had refused to go for yearly mammograms,
her cancer wasn’t caught in the early stages. By the time she felt the lump in
her breast, the cancer had metastasized and spread to her bones. But cancer
didn’t kill my mother; stupidity did. I have no doubt that had she gone for
yearly mammograms, she’d be alive today.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Don’t be
like my mother. Don’t be stupid. Schedule your mammogram today.
