My motivation

When I was a teenager, my grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She opted for a partial mastectomy because she didn't want to go through chemotherapy. I was lost in my teenage self-focus so there was never that fear of losing her. She was my grandma, a permanent fixture in my life.

She quit smoking. I remember wondering why she quit smoking when she had breast cancer, not lung cancer. Now I know. For her, cancer was real. It was no longer something that happened to someone else.

Last year, a friend of mine from high school was diagnosed with breast cancer. This struck even closer to home. Someone my age with breast cancer.

Real.

She discovered the lump during a self-examination. The lump was on the side of her breast, almost in her arm pit. She went through chemo and had a lumpectomy. She lost her hair, too much weight, but never her spirit.

Breast cancer is very real, it doesn't discriminate. I know some women don't check their breasts because they're afraid of what they'll find. I will admit that I fell in that category not too long ago. It is scary. And what you know won't hurt you, right? Wrong. The only thing scarier than finding breast cancer, is not finding it. Found early, breast cancer is very treatable.

So, this month, I'll be touching my breasts... will you?