THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410140781
SECTION: HAMPTON ROADS WOMAN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
THE ADVERTISERS have it all wrong.
Instead of that 30-something, blond-haired woman who tells you in her sultry voice how important it is for women to get regular mammograms, they should also be showing us a 50-something African-American woman wearing a prosthesis; or a 60-something white woman doing a breast self-exam.
Because they're the ones most at risk for breast cancer.
And the ones least likely to get the recommended annual mammogram, or to conduct regular breast self-examinations.
Eighty percent of breast cancer occurs in women 50 and older; and yet only about 15 percent of women in that age group get an annual mammogram.
``It's fear of the unknown,'' says Rheta Whitehurst, 59, who discovered her first lump five years ago. ``They're afraid of what they don't know, and so they'd rather not know at all.''
-
I found a lump.
I was standing in front of the full-length mirror in the bathroom when I noticed my nipple was puckered.
And then they told me to carry my mammogram over to my doctor. That's when I knew something was wrong.
He felt a lump . . .
-
They say the words in the same, flat, unpitying voice. It's a fact. I found a lump. Had my breast cut off. Three months (or six months) of chemotherapy (or radiation).
But I survived.
And therein lies the story.
Not the story of the surgery, of the decision to lose a breast, of the nausea and hair loss from the chemo. But of the survival. Of the women who, at age 50, 53, 55, discovered their lumps. And are here three or four or five years later to tell us about it. by CNB