The Haddonfield American Legion hosted a recent talk about the importance of breast cancer screenings with advice from Dr. Sramila Aithal, a specialist in breast cancer and gynecological malignancies.
Aithal stressed the importance of women getting tested, while three cancer survivors out of a crowd of about 40 people spoke about their individual experiences with the disease.
“It’s also important to note that everyone’s story is different,” Aithal noted. “Not all cancers behave the same. And it is important to collect all the information. The more you’re empowered with knowledge, you can make better decisions for yourself with regards to your health …
“It’s also not necessary to live your life in fear,” she added. “The purpose of having these conversations today is not to create or instill fear, but really empower with that knowledge so that you’re equipped to make the right choice.”
Participant Nicole Wilson recounted that she survived cancer because of mammograms.
“I may not have the size 6 body I used to have, but I am still here and thriving,” she said. “Nothing can stop me from achieving what I set my mind to. I’ve planned to make every day count and live life to the fullest. If it wasn’t for me getting a mammogram and the support I received from other cancer survivors, especially my mom, my story would’ve had a very different ending.
“Don’t forget to get your mammograms.”
Sarah Scarlata talked about how her mother died of breast cancer in 1982, and her sister has been diagnosed with the disease, making it her goal to test early and often so she didn’t have to go through the same thing.
“I started to think really about what I should do, because I was pretty certain that I was going to get it,” she recalled, referencing her sister. “…(She) was 50 by the time it was caught; I was 46 when I did the surgery. So probably in a few years, the screening would have caught it. I would have had to do radiation, I would have had to do chemotherapy because of the stage (of the cancer), I didn’t have to. And that was my goal.”
According to the CDC, about 132.9 per 100,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Because Scarlata, who started getting mammograms at 30, got an early diagnosis and she didn’t have to undergo chemo or radiation therapy, she sometimes wonders if she can even call herself a survivor.
“Sometimes I say, ‘Am I a survivor?’ Scarlata acknowledged. “But I am a survivor because I lived 40 years in the shadow of breast cancer hanging over me. I know you think time heals, but losing my mother was like yesterday; it doesn’t go away. Never goes away. I want her here, I want her right now, even though she’d be 90, I want her here.
“It never gets easier.”
Aithal said it takes courage for some women to speak about their experiences.
“Do you know how much it takes to stand in front of an audience to share what you have gone through personally?” she asked the participants at her talk. “The emotions that it has triggered. It brings back flashbacks of what you have been through.
“So I commend all those who shared for sharing their wonderful story. That’s really amazing and commendable.”
Post Commander Rodney Thomas – himself a cancer survivor – said he would like to have seen more people attend the talk. But he attributed that in part to breast cancer not being “a real pleasant topic,” he explained.
Wilson spoke about her cancer experience for the first time at the post, to get more people talking about the illness.
“Of course you’re in your own head,” she observed of going public. “You messed up. You did this, you said this. But once I got through it, it felt good to share my story and hopefully it helps others. That there is light at the end of the tunnel … I think it’s more common to talk about now.
“Back even when I had it,” Wilson added, “they were like, ‘You said breast, oh no,’ and it’s like, when you have cancer, I’m sorry it’s breast cancer … You can’t sugarcoat it.”
