Raenea Murphey

Survivor

My Mom’s Breast Cancer Saved My Life

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2018. After she told me and my 2 sisters, I decided to do a self exam and found a lump in my right breast. At that point I dismissed it so we could get her at least through her surgery before I did anything. Once her surgery was done and we found out she would be doing radiation only and not chemo, I started to think again about my own lump that was still there about a month later. I went and got a mammogram, then was told I needed a biopsy. That’s when I had to tell my mom I also found a lump and now they wanted to do a biopsy to test it. She was in disbelief that in less than a month from her surgery I was now facing possibly the same diagnosis. I was diagnosed with stage 2b triple negative breast cancer at age 32 in November 2018. After some genetic testing it seems it’s not hereditary, just a coincidence that we had breast cancer back to back. After 20 weeks of chemotherapy and 6 weeks of radiation I’m now 2 years cancer free as of 2021. If my mother wouldn’t have found her cancer, I would have never checked into my own.

If you find a lump no matter your age, please go check it out. Breast Cancer doesn’t care about your age.