1 in 8 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their life. In just 2017, there are an estimated 252,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women. Early diagnosis is key when it comes to beating it – and this one photo will tell you how to check.
Erin Smith Chieze posted a photo on Facebook that not only depicted the abnormalities of breast cancer but an in depth description of them too. The photo uses lemons as a great representation of breasts. Each lemon will a different abnormality that comes from breast cancer.
She says, “In December of 2015 when I saw an indentation that looked like one of those pictures, I instantly knew I had breast cancer,” she wrote. “I tried to feel for a tumor, but my tumor was nonpalpable. I was diagnosed with breast cancer 5 days later and with stage 4 the following month. A heart did nothing for awareness. I knew what breast cancer was. I knew all about self-exams, but a picture of what to look for keyed me into knowing I had a terminal disease.”
She continued, “We need to give REAL information, not cute hearts. Without having seen a picture randomly with real information, I wouldn’t have known what to look for. Do us a favor, stop playing games with my life and start truly helping people. Metastatic breast cancer treatment research and real awareness.”
“PLEASE, stop playing games that do not actually promote awareness, they often cause people to tune out anything that might even mention the word awareness,” Erin wrote. “So if you truly want to help people WITH cancer, or those who will GET cancer, share photos like this one.”