Emily Dodd

Pre-vivor

“In October 2014, at the age of 20, I was diagnosed with Nueroendocrine Cancer. It is this really rare kind of cancer that is most common in older African-American men… Now, as you can see from my profile picture, I am clearly not older, or African-American, or a man.. But somehow, I still had a malignant tumor growing in my belly. Now, I was unbelievably fortunate because I was able to remove all of the cancer in one surgery. But because of this cancer, I decided to do some genetic testing. The idea was to hopefully find a reason behind developing this cancer, and to make sure that I would not pass it on to my future children. When the results came back however, I got some shocking news. I tested negative for the gene that causes Nueroendocrine Cancer, but positive for the gene that causes Breast Cancer. Hearing a Cancer diagnosis was one of the scariest things I have ever experienced. When the doctor then explained that I had a very slim chance of getting the cancer that I had, but a chance of getting breast cancer that was 80% higher than the average woman, I barely even hesitated. I chose to have a Double Mastectomy in June 2015, because I will do whatever I can to prevent hearing another cancer diagnosis in my lifetime. My website, Myboobsarefake.wordpress.com,  is all about sharing my mastectomy experience and helping other women get through it.” 

– Emily Dodd, Myboobsarefake.wordpress.com