Meet Naya
“With a very aggressive form of breast cancer, things moved really fast for my treatment plan.”
Naya had a clean mammogram just months before discovering a fast-growing cancer in October 2018, at 46
Ten months after having a normal mammogram, Naya felt a lump in her breast. She reached out to her doctor the next day and had a diagnostic mammogram. A biopsy revealed she had stage 3 HER2+ inflammatory breast cancer. Her doctor told her the cancer was fast growing, which is why it hadn’t been found during her annual mammogram.
“I was in the process of buying a house when I was diagnosed,” Naya said. “I asked my oncologist if we should still go through with it, and she said, ‘buy the house. Life is for the living and you’re still here.’” This phrase changed Naya’s outlook, even to this day.
Naya had chemotherapy, a mastectomy, radiation therapy and reconstruction. She now has scans every six months. “Breast cancer is not a death sentence,” Naya said. “I live my life like I don’t have cancer – I’m careful with what I eat, I watch my alcohol intake, I listen to my doctors, but I try not to think about cancer every day.”
When we talk about breast cancer, the more money we can raise and the more research that can be done.
