October celebrated Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is an issue that hits home for me because both my mother and grandmother are breast cancer survivors.

My mom, who was diagnosed in January, said she was very scared about finding out. I remember when she went to the doctor to have her annual mammogram. She called me that day and told me that they found something and would be doing an ultrasound. They ended up finding more tumors.

She told me she was very scared and worried about her family, mostly me because she helps take care of me because of my disability.

Luckily, she, like my grandma, caught it before it got serious, and they were able to save her life. Neither of them had to go through chemo treatments or anything like that.

She, unlike my grandmother, had a double mastectomy, which is where the doctors take out the affected areas in the breasts. The doctors did this to prevent her cancer from going to the other side because they said it was very likely to spread even though it did not get into the lymph nodes.

My grandmother, who had breast cancer in October 2006, is now going on five years cancer free. If a person can make it to the five-year mark, they are usually in the clear, and it is unlikely to return. Both of their cancers were estrogen related, and they are now both on medications to block the estrogen.

Thankfully, the issue has really come to light over the last few years with help from national sports organizations such as the NFL and Major League Baseball wearing the color pink with their uniforms. This support brings the kind of awareness to this disease that it needs to ensure a cure is found.

All I can say is, both women and men, but especially women, need to be tested yearly for this somewhat curable, but very dangerous, cancer because no one should have to go through it.