I received $150 from AstraZeneca, and any opinions expressed by me are honest and reflect my actual experience. This is a sponsored post for SheSpeaks/AstraZeneca.
Cancer really strikes a cord with me. It’s affected my life as well as the lives of people around me. It’s a vicious disease that doesn’t stop and we all need to be aware of it. I love the following quote because it’s pertained to me in many aspects of my life; while I battled cancer with just a few people by my side and then again when I took on the weight of the world and brought my siblings into our family and created a new home for us all -??Strength is not something you have, rather something that reveals itself when you need it. It’s so true. I wasn’t a strong person and I’m still not. I’m weak. I can break. I cry. But when it comes down to it, when I need to be, I’ll be the strongest person standing in that corner.
It’s Ovarian Cancer Awareness month and I want to encourage all of the people I know with Ovarian Cancer?to get tested for the BRCA gene. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are human genes most commonly associated with breast cancer and are involved with cell growth, cell division, and cell repair. But given this association, it’s important for people to know that BRCA gene mutations are also found in 15% of women with ovarian cancer. You don’t have to have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer to have the?BRCA gene either so get tested regardless of your family history and in fact 47% of ovarian cancer patients that are BRCA positive have no significant family history of ovarian or breast cancer. Surprisingly, many ovarian cancer patients still aren’t getting tested for the BRCA mutations; even though the tests are easily done through saliva or blood samples, with results available in 2-3 weeks.
It has been estimated by the American Cancer Society that 21,000 new cases of ovarian cancer will be diagnosed this year in the United States alone. In fact the risk is 1 in 73 for a woman to develop ovarian cancer and 60% of ovarian cancer patients have had their cancer spread to other organs by the time they are diagnosed. There’s a shockingly low 27% 5 year survival rate in ovarian cancer patients.
Has cancer affected the lives of anyone you know? Who?
