Survivor Says Early Detection Key In Breast Cancer Treatment, Encourages People To Go To 'Mammothon'
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
More than 260,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, according to the American Cancer Society.
The death rate is down, and doctors are attributing that to early detection.
LifeBridge Health is urging women to get screened. A special event will try to get women in- to get checked.
"I got this card in the mail and when I saw it, I was like, 'Oh, Northwest Hospital is having a Mammothon," said June Harlee, who went in for a screening.
While nobody in her family has a history of cancer, Harlee went and had a 3-D mammogram, and got some news.
"And the doctor came in, and they talked a little bit and I heard the word 'carcinoma' and I was like 'carcinoma,' and I thought they must be talking about somebody else, because I know they aren't talking about me," Harlee said.
After a biopsy, doctors discovered she did have breast cancer.
"She said, 'Well, Ms. Harlee, you have cancer,'. And I was like 'No, I don't have cancer,'" Ms. Harlee said. "It seemed like my life just stopped for a minute and I thought, 'What am I going to do?'"
Harlee went to Sinai Hospital every day for treatment, and on July 2, she got another diagnosis.
This time, cancer-free.
"The diagnosis was 'Cancer-free' and I was like 'Thank you Lord, cancer-free!' and I just wanted to run out and tell everybody 'I'm cancer-free!'" she said.
Harlee is now the face of the Mammothon campaign.
"I would have had a completely different diagnosis, a completely different treatment plan, Mammothon really saved my life," she said.
The Mammothon is November 1.
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