Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is designated as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, during which many runs, walks and illumination of buildings in pink, take place worldwide.

Breast Cancer Awareness involves increasing public knowledge about breast cancer and promoting early detection through regular screenings.

Black women develop breast cancer at similar or lower rates than white women, but they are more likely to die from it, primarily due to factors like aggression tumor biology, which includes a higher risk of triple-negative breast cancer, and socioeconomic factors link to structural racism, which lead to less access to quality healthcare resulting in later diagnosis and delayed treatment.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) black women are disproportionately affected by TNBC, a rarer and more aggressive form of breast cancer that does not respond to hormonal therapy, leaving fewer treatment options.

The biggest risk factor for breast cancer is women have more breast cells and are exposed to growth-promoting female hormone. Check your family history and that of your relatives.

Five common warning signs of breast cancer are a new lump or mass in the breast or underarm, a change in the size or shape of the breast, dimpling or puckering of the breast skin, nipple discharge other than breast milk and nipple retention or pain.

I write this story from my heart. My mother had breast cancer and lost a breast but she has been cancer free for 10 years.

My oldest sister had breast cancer, another sister is going through it also, my cousin got it and my daughter just recently got diagnosed with it and is going through chemo and radiation now.

So, the part about close relatives is so true. Those who are diagnosed need all the support we can give them and lend an ear when they need to let some stuff off their chest. Be safe and get a mammogram at the right age.