The author recounts feeling that getting annual mammograms was a waste of time, as she had no family history of breast cancer. After being diagnosed with breast cancer from a routine mammogram, she realized she needed to change her life priorities from career success to time with family, friends, and her spiritual practice. Twenty-six years later, cured of breast cancer, she shares her story to encourage all women to get annual breast screenings, as it may save their life as it possibly did for her.

3. “Just a waste of my time,” I remember thinking
while waiting my turn for a mammogram in Dr.
Ira Berger’s office. I had brought my briefcase
and had work spread on my lap, but spending
time driving the 97-mile round trip from my home
office to the radiologist’s was an unproductive
part of my day.
It was 1992 and I had been getting annual
mammograms for more than 10 years – ever
since I turned 45. But I felt I had better things to do
with my time, especially since no one in my
family had ever had breast cancer, or cancer of
any kind.

5. I had a new job working as a consultant for a
company headquartered in Pennsylvania, and I
wanted to succeed beyond their wildest
expectations. My world had recently been
shaken at the roots when my brilliant career as
a marketing and sales director ended in a lay-
off following a merger.
Even though I had finished with standing in the
unemployment line, the shame of that weekly
ordeal lingered in my memory. Each week the
line had move dagonizingly slow while I
glanced without making eye contact at the gray,
cheerless faces and realized mine probably
looked the same.

7. It was after I was told, “It’s breast cancer,” that I
realized I was being given a wake-up call. Oh
yes, I definitely needed to change my life. Time
with family and friends, even my daily prayers
and meditation, had gone by the wayside after
rumors about the merger turned into a
nightmarish reality.
And so, even before the surgeon removed all the
lymph nodes under my right arm (negative,
thank goodness), I took a good hard look at my
life and decided to make changes. Succeeding in
my career would no longer take first place in my
life. Communication with my spiritual source and
giving attention to my family and friends would
be my top priorities.

11. After 26 years I can definitely say I’m cured of
breast cancer. There’s just one last thing I must
do to complete that phase of my life, and that
is to break my silence and encourage every
woman to get her annual mammogram or
breast ultrasound. It was a routine
mammogram and an incredibly gifted
radiologist that possibly saved my life. By
writing this article and sharing my story, if just
one of you reading about my experience
decides to get regular screenings, then I can
say: “Something ELSE good has come of this.”