COLUMBIA, S.C. — 4,300 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year in South Carolina, according to DHEC.
During breast cancer awareness month in October, survivors, advocates and experts aim to raise awareness about the disease.
“I wish I would have done a little more research growing up,” said Jennifer Kroening. “And really understanding, I think, what I know now.”
Kroening was diagnosed with breast cancer after she found a lump. She says she wishes she’d known more about the disease.
“As a younger woman, those are things that they, you know, I hate to say it but they it was more like a mature woman's disease,” Kroening said.
She hopes more women learn to keep up with self-examinations.
“I remember having a conversation with my mom as a young adult woman. I'm like ‘what am I supposed to feel like? What is a bump supposed to be, what is it not supposed to be?’”, Kroening said. “Get them to know their body and what's normal for them to question like this doesn't look right to me.”
DHEC’s Director of Cancer Programs Vinita Leedom recommends monthly self exams and mammograms every one to two years for women over forty.
“Routine self exams take minutes,” Leedom said. “From the time you check into your appointment from the time you leave for a mammogram, you might spend less than 30 minutes but it could save your life,” Leedom said. “The five year survival rate for women in South Carolina who were diagnosed with breast cancer early, the five year survival rate is 99%.”
Age, genetics, dense breast tissue and other factors can play a role, but women can help prevent it.
“Women should limit their alcohol intake,” Leedom said. “They should stop using tobacco products. Maintain a healthy weight, get to a healthy weight. Exercise regularly. Limit postmenopausal hormone therapy and it has also been shown that breastfeeding can play a role in breast cancer prevention.”
She says if insurance or cost is an issue, women may be able to use their Best Chance Network to access breast and cervical cancer screenings.
Krisdee Clark is another breast cancer survivor, who says she wasn’t doing monthly checks.
“Thank God that he showed me another way because I did not do that,” Clark said. “And I look back and I think oh my gosh, I mean, can I not have that moment? In the shower where I was getting soap off me where I happen to feel a lump.”
She’s now an advocate and blogger for patients and survivors.
“I can't tell you the amount of women that I have talked to, run into throughout everywhere in the United States that have told me ‘I thought I had a lump. I asked my doctor, they said it was probably a calcium deposit,’” Clark said. “Advocate for yourself.”