Source: Paul Archuleta / Getty
TV personality and former MTV VJ Ananda Lewis is urging Black women to get mammograms after being diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.
On Thursday (Oct 1) in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, Anada Lewis kicked off the month with the diagnosis announcement on Instagram urging other women of color to get tested as advised by medical professionals to ensure early detection.
“I said, ‘Huh! Radiation exposure for years equals breast cancer. Yeah, I’m going to pass,’” Ananda said. “‘Thanks anyway.’”
The 47-year-old admitted that for a long time she passed on getting mammograms because her own mother went and had them consistently, and eventually was diagnosed with 3 breast cancer in her lymph nodes. She assumed it was the low energy X-rays that exposed her to the disease.
“If I had done the mammograms from the time they were recommended when I turned 40, they would have caught the tumor in my breast years before I caught it through my own breast exam, self-exam and thermography,” Anada continued. “They would have caught it at a place where it was more manageable, where the treatment of it would have been a little easier. It’s never easy, but I use that word in comparison to what I’m going through now.”
Despite the late diagnosis. Lewis states that she’s opted for 100 percent alternative natural treatments, stating that the choice has helped keep the spread of the condition to a minimum before noting that she “still has a lot of work to do.”
“I wish I could go back,” Lewis said. “I have a 9-year-old I need to be here for. I have no intention on leaving him. I need you to share this with the women in your life who may be as stubborn as I was about mammograms. And I need you to tell them that they have to do it,” she said. “Early detection, especially for breast cancer, changes your outcome. It can save their life. For me it was important to come to you and admit where I went wrong with this because it could help you or someone you know.”
Prayers up to Anada Lewis for a speedy and healthy recovery.
Check out her full live below.
