Her Aunt’s Hidden Breast Cancer Diagnosis Revealed A Life-Changing Family Health Risk
Navigating a cancer diagnosis can be both a devastating and empowering experience. Having a village to help you move through doctors’ appointments, excruciating pain, treatment, and the unnerving fears can […] The post Her Aunt’s Hidden Breast Cancer Diagnosis Revealed A Life-Changing Family Health Risk appeared first on Essence.
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“I found out when I was 25, my sister found out when she was 22, that we both carried that same genetic mutation,” she says. They had an increased lifetime risk of up to 75% for breast cancer, so as a result, Brooklyn began getting annual breast cancer screening mammograms with her care team at Penn Medicine’s Basser Center for BRCA. Prior to that, she would do exams once every three years when she saw her gynecologist.
Those annual tests may have saved her life.
A few days before the pandemic started, at the age of 28, Brooklyn was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer. “I was stressed a little bit myself. I felt worse about having to tell my family this, having to tell my mom, who just witnessed her sister pass away from breast cancer,” she adds, also noting that she worried this news would lead to the end of her three-year relationship with her now husband.
Deciding to take a different approach than her aunt, Olumba broke the news to her loved ones and allowed them to support her through cancer treatment. Both her mom and twin sister moved in and took care of her, thanks to their ability to work remotely during COVID.
“They were taking me to chemo, my mom was making me food. I wasn’t doing much, so they were keeping my apartment clean and just being a source of company, so it didn’t feel so isolating,” she says.
After getting diagnosed, Brooklyn became an advocate for women going through breast cancer via social media and plans to spread her reach to impact policy. For now, she continues to emphasize the importance of learning your family history, which was a critical step that led to early diagnosis for her.
“I want people to know that it’s really important to know your risk. And knowing your risk means talking to your family,” she says. “It means getting a true family history of what all kinds of chronic conditions people in your family have, especially with cancer.”
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The post Her Aunt’s Hidden Breast Cancer Diagnosis Revealed A Life-Changing Family Health Risk appeared first on Essence.
