Every day in Pennsylvania, 27 women learn they have breast cancer, and every day, five lose their lives to the disease.
This weekend, 1,000 Blair County residents will support and celebrate survivors, while raising money and awareness to defeat breast cancer. The 17th annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk steps out Sunday, October 8, in Altoona.
This year’s Survivor Ambassador Allison Bonsell believes her experience has given her a message that could save lives from breast cancer.
Medical advances like 3D mammography made the diagnosis of breast cancer more accurate, just like digital mammography was an improvement over the previous technology. But, at events like the Making Strides kick-off, Allison Bonsell warns women they’re not perfect.
Back in 2014, she underwent digital mammography after finding a lump, but the test showed nothing suspicious.
“I asked for a second opinion because they told me it was just dense tissue. I didn’t believe that. I could still feel the lump . It was there, Allison explains.
A second mammogram confirmed the original diagnosis, but Allison wasn’t convinced.
She says, “I kind of pushed the issue and talked to my doctor and she agreed to do another ultrasound. At the time, they saw something they weren’t quite happy with and did a biopsy right there in the office.”
It showed stage 2b invasive ductal carcinoma, breast cancer.
Allison was pleased to hear that the mass was so small she probably wouldn’t need chemotherapy, but the tumor was a bigger than doctors thought, and it had gone to the lymph nodes. She underwent 24 weeks of chemo and 30 radiation treatments.
Allison ‘s friend Kim had a different type of breast cancer, and was being treated by a different doctor, but the two women underwent the same chemo and radiation therapies.
“We went through everything together, had a celebratory meal, had the waitress take a picture of us because we beat cancer. And Kim Hileman Peterman lost her fight April 11th, this year, so women still do die from this,” Allison says.
This year, Allison’s walking for Kim, even more than for herself, to remind women that despite all of the advances, breast cancer is a killer. She says we need to keep fighting and to be our own strongest advocates.
“Women need to be able to be partners in their education, they need to talk to doctors when they don’t necessarily feel the whole story’s being told or they want to say something extra.,” Allison explains.
And she adds, “Doctors, I have found, really do want to hear what is going on with you. If not, they’re going to go with the averages, so you need to tell them about you.”
She says her doctors were more than happy about her decision to ask for a second opinion. And the physician who rendered the second opinion was more than happy to go a little further when Allison wasn’t happy with the diagnosis of dense tissue.
Allison says doctors tell her that if 3D technology had been available for her first and second mammograms, her tumor would have been detected.
Since she found the lump during a self-exam, she also urges women to perform these exams.
“I think self exams are every bit as important as a mammogram. Mammograms can be wrong. Mammograms can hide things, sometimes. I think to be attuned with your body and know what it’s supposed to feel like, you’re going to be more apt to find something early,” she says.
If you’d like to meet Allison and join the fight against breast cancer, go to the Making Strides page to sign up.
You’ll can also meet WTAJ anchor John Clay, who’ll emcee the event.