October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and people around the world remind us all that the fight against breast cancer isn’t over.
Millions of women have been diagnosed with breast cancer every year, hundreds of thousands of families mourn the loss of a loved one who lost their fight against the deadly disease.
According to the World Health Organization, close to 2.3 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer and over 685,000 died worldwide in 2020.
It's a disease that is becoming more and more common and increasing the need to raise awareness.
”Breast cancer is extremely common and 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer. So, that’s why it is important to do research and provide funding for research,” said Dr. Will Dobie Lead Radiologist at the Baylor Scott & White Hillcrest Breast Center.
It's not only the need for research doctors are stressing, but the need to increase regular breast cancer screening in women of all ages.
”We find breast cancer before it is able to be felt by the patient or the referring doctor. We find it extremely early on and that increases survival. When you find it at an early stage, that makes it much more treatable,” said Dr. Dobie.
In fact, the battle against breast cancer is a continuous fight according to breast cancer survivor Julie Morrow. Morrow knows this all too well after being told her cancer was back after years of her being cancer-free.
”Coming up on my 7th year and was unfortunately told that I had breast cancer again. While mine is not metastatic, I had a local rare re-occurrence,” said Moser.
Not only is Moser once again dealing with a positive cancer diagnosis, but her mother has also been fighting her own battle against the same form of breast cancer that she has.
Since her mother’s cancer has become metastatic and spread, it’s a fight her mother is sadly losing.
”It’s back, it’s very aggressive and she has refused all treatments. So just recently I went and put my mom in hospice so somebody could care for her,” said Moser.
Knowing that she and her mom aren’t the only ones, Moser continues to raise awareness through the Pink Warrior Angels, a nonprofit that helps those fighting breast cancer and all that comes with it.
”It’s hard but, it’s going to be okay because even if it’s just me standing on my soapbox and screaming from the rooftops to make things better for one more person, that’s one more person that we’ve helped,” said Moser.
Many of us might only pay attention to breast cancer awareness in the month of October, but there are so many people fighting it every day making the need for awareness a year-round fight.
