One in eight women will at some point be told they have breast cancer. It is why each Friday as part of breast cancer awareness month we’re sharing stories of hope, inspiration and showing you how you can help Race for a Cure.
Austin mom Jennifer Hough is winning her battle against breast cancer because she listened to her body.
Last year she had just stopped nursing her son, Logan, when she noticed a pain in her chest. She went to the doctor who performed a series of tests.
"Everything came back normal," said Hough.
Months later she felt a lump the size of a small marble. So she went back to her doctor.
"He said I think it’s a cyst," said Hough. "But let’s go ahead and do a biopsy."
It was not a cyst, it was a tumor. Hough was told she had breast cancer.
"I was 37 when I was diagnosed -- three months before my 38th birthday," she said.
It was a shock for this mother of two and her family. She has no history of breast cancer, but there was some good news—she caught it early.
"I was stage 0. So the invasive component of my cancer hadn’t turned on. It stayed all in the milk ducts so I was able to avoid chemo," she said.
Hough had a double mastectomy and radiation.
"I am what they call triple negative. Estrogen and progesterone don’t fuel my cancer and there’s another one called Her-2 and that doesn’t cause my cancer to grow either. So we really don’t know what caused my cancer," she said.
Doctors say Hough is lucky. She listened to her body and got help immediately.
"You know my prognosis is almost back to normal population because we caught my cancer so early because we treated it so aggressively," said Hough.
She will still undergo MRI’s every six months, but is hopeful about her future. She's also grateful to be able to share her story because she hopes it will inspire other women.
"I’m a walking advertisement for early detection," she said. "I'm a mom. I have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old. I want to be around to see my grandkids. If we had waited even six months, it would have been a different story."
Hough just celebrated her one year "Cancerversary", as she calls it. That’s the one year anniversary of her being cancer free.
Join the Race
This year’s Race for the Cure takes place Sunday, November 1st at the Domain. We hope you’ll join us.
You can go here to register for the race.
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