Cancer: Breast self exams

The diagnosis of breast cancer can be devastating news for women of all ages. But imagine being 38 years old, a new mom and an active career woman. <br/><br/>News on 6 anchor LeAnne Taylor says Cindy

Monday, May 10th 2004, 10:05 am

By: News On 6

The diagnosis of breast cancer can be devastating news for women of all ages. But imagine being 38 years old, a new mom and an active career woman.

News on 6 anchor LeAnne Taylor says Cindy Johnson is a busy woman, not only is she the Vice President of Finance at a Tulsa company, she's a working mom, a wife and a breast cancer survivor.

Last summer at the age of 38 she got the news that would change her life and the life of her family. Cindyâ€™s husband Jay: â€œOnce we sat down in the plane, next to one another, we hadn't seen each other in awhile and it felt so good to hold her hand and be next to her and she turns to me and says that she had breast cancer so that really tugged at my heart.â€

Cindy Johnson: â€œmy husband's been great and of course I had a 1 year old to take care of and a 10 year old and those are other things that really make it much easier just to say OK, I've got to get up every morning, I'm a career person and I just had to take care of what had to be taken care of. I had a real strong faith in a way you can feel that lift you up.â€

She made it through surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Her doctor said by detecting the lumps early, she had a better chance of survival. Jay: â€œthe irony in all this, Cindy and I met in 1996 during a project designed to get women involved in doing BSE, breast self-exam. She's been doing it ever since.â€

Cindy: â€œeven before I knew about your diagnosis, I just wanted to pick up the phone and say LeAnne you're not going to believe this. We did this Buddy Check thing 8 years ago with no idea, here we are now.â€

Jay: â€œCindy and I have traveled very similar paths, no family history of breast cancer, no previous illness, both working moms in the prime of our lives.â€

Cindy: â€œOK, I did the Buddy Check program and talked to a lot of people about it and now I have the opportunity to kind of be a voice again and to let others know it's not the end for you, that you can have your family, you can have your career or whatever it is you want to do and you just get through it.â€

Get through it for yourselves and the ones you love. There is a three pronged approach to fighting breast cancer, regular mammograms, yearly clinical exams with your doctor and a monthly breast self exam.

If you don't know how to do BSE, Click Here for a '.pdf' file which explains the procedure.