Letters: The view from a cancer survivor

Re “Breast practices,” Opinion, Feb. 21

I have no genetic markers for breast cancer and no outstanding risks. I am an average female.

Yet it is due to a couple of routine mammograms that I am here.

I went in on two-year intervals, and that is when they discovered aggressive Stage III breast cancer. After a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation, I recuperated and moved forward.

Four years later, I went in for a routine mammogram: aggressive breast cancer again. As before, there was no lump. This time I had double mastectomies, chemo and a year of proactive treatment.

It is only due to mammograms that I have survived long enough to watch over my children as they progressed to college. I am eternally grateful that I live in a time in which I’ve been given a second chance.

The article was disparaging, disdainful and dismissive in claiming that “only a very few can possibly benefit” from screening.

I am a living, breathing woman contributing to society, and a testament to the value of timely, routine mammograms.

Storme Leeb
Claremont

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