Breast Cancer Can Strike Young And Old Alike

It's something you never think can happen to you. But last year, more than 230,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer.

Imagine being young and being told that diagnosis. That's what happened to one Tulsa woman who had just graduated from college.

Amanda King knows the importance of regular checkups, not just for her patients but for herself as well. When she went in for her annual physical last year, the 25-year-old found out she had a lump and that it was breast cancer.

"I almost actually missed my check up because I was in the process of moving to Tulsa and I didn't have time for it that day, but I went ahead and went and if I had missed that, it had already progressed to late stage 2 almost early stage 3. So if I had waited any longer, it would have been a lot harder," said Amanda King.

The doctor said she would have to undergo aggressive treatment, chemo to shrink the tumor, then surgery followed by radiation.

"They told me that it was pretty large when they found it so they wanted to shrink it down first with chemo and then they wanted to be able to remove it with surgery. And since I'm so young, we decided to do the double mastectomy so it doesn't reoccur," said Amanda King.

Experts say 5 percent of breast cancers occur in women under the age of 40 and with no family history; Amanda thought she was in the clear.

"Cancer doesn't know age and it doesn't care who you are so if a recent college grad can get it, anyone can," said Amanda King.

Last year, Amanda's family and friends joined her for the Komen Race for the Cure in Tulsa.

"One of my good friends asked me if I wanted to have a team and I've always wanted to do the Race for the Cure and I think it's just a great way to raise money and raise awareness for breast cancer. I wanted people to see that you can be 25 and get breast cancer," Amanda King said.

Now, besides focusing on her career, she's also willing to share her experience with others.

"This even strengthened my faith even more. I knew God had a plan for me and that there's something else I'm supposed to be doing. Attitude has so much to do with it. I knew this wasn't going to be the end... that there was something else. I think that got me through a lot of it," said Amanda King.

Amanda King plans to have a team again this year for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, coming up Saturday September 15, 2012 at OneOk Field in downtown Tulsa.

You can either start your own team like Amanda or you can join my team, by clicking here.