RICHMOND, Va. — Joanne Peña was just 10 years old when her mother died from colon cancer. Peña said it felt like déjà vu in 2018 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to share the news with her children.
“My husband and I come home and we sat right here, much like my mom did with me and my sister at their same ages and tell them that mom has cancer,” Peña said. “The goal has always been to keep their life as normal as possible, because my life was so disrupted that I was not going to do it to them.”
With cancer on her mind, Peña got regular mammograms and pap smears starting at age 30.
Everything was always fine,” she said.
But at age 30, she felt a lump in her breast. When three mammograms showed nothing was wrong, she insisted on getting an ultrasound. The ultrasound led to a biopsy which revealed the cancer.
“I had it on both sides. It had spread to my lymph nodes. My only choice was a bilateral mastectomy,” she said.
The experience left Peña convinced that advocating for herself led to an early diagnosis which saved her life. She now urges other women, especially those with dense breast tissue, to not accept some results and also advocate for themselves.