Breast Cancer Awareness
FCCLA teacher Carrie Hill is a breast cancer survivor.
More stories from Kieva Ussery
Ms. Hill is a part of a family of survivors. All of the women in this picture have had breast cancer. Her mother, who also was a breast cancer survivor, passed of stomach cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 8 U.S women, about 10 percent, will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. In 2016, an estimated 246,600 new cases are expected to be diagnosed, along with 61,000 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer.
Those who survive any sort of cancer are simply superheroes. And in superhero fashion, FCCLA teacher Carrie Hill is one who has beat it.
Unfortunately, she expected it.
“I’ve been around cancer all my life; my mom and her mom and her sister. Her mom and her sister died of breast cancer and then my mom had breast cancer and then her other sister had breast cancer,” Hill said. “I wasn’t surprised.”
She remembers the day so vividly.
“I used to go in for a sonogram after a mammogram,” Hill said. “Then, that one time, they didn’t call me back in for a sonogram, so I thought ‘Oh, I’m good.’ About two weeks later, they called me.”
The news was heartbreaking.
“Then they said, ‘Hey, we don’t think there’s anything wrong but we looked at last year’s mammogram and then looked at this years and there’s a little bit of a difference. So, why don’t you just come in.’ Sure enough, because they saw the mammogram from the year before and then they saw this mammogram, they found the difference,” Hill said.
When women are diagnosed, most have no idea what to do, where to turn or who to tell. In Hill’s case, she knew exactly what to do – her loving family was right there at her side.
“They were very supportive. Very supportive,” Hill said. “If I didn’t have my husband… Just, the stuff he had to do was crazy. Emotionally, I needed him.”
Having so many family members that have had cancer makes one want to take every precaution possible. One has to be very aware of all the things that can happen, the do’s and don’ts.
“I’ve always been extremely careful about having mammograms,” Hill said. “To me, that’s what saves people’s lives.”
Because of her illness, it made her become more aware of her health and breast cancer awareness.
“I always like to remind my friends to go have their mammograms,” Hill said.
There is an entire month dedicated to breast cancer awareness, making sure we keep our men and women safe, taking every health precaution possible.
Hill is a perfect example of proactive health awareness.