I would like to share the survival story of my mom's sister, my Aunt Linda McGaha. She credits God, family, and the incredible MAMMOGRAPHY that caught her tumor. She is so thankful that there is an increased awareness of cancer and the importance of yearly mammograms and regular self breast exams. She started having yearly mammograms at age 40, yearly visits to the gynocologist, and performed self breast exams. A tumor was found in her left breast during her annual mammogram in January 2009. That discovery lead to an ultrasound and a breast MRI. The tumor was deep and could not be felt by the surgeon or by her during self breast exams. She chose to have a mastectomy. The tumor was then found to be her2 cancer. her2 cancer usually occurs in women over the age of sixty. She had surgery on 2-25-09 and started chemo three weeks later. She took four chemo treatments in three days and wore a pump at home with chemo for two of these nights. This was done in a 21 day cycle to give a little time to build up and start over on day 22. She did this regimen for five months. She was very sick during this time, but never gave up. She says that the most devastating thing was loosing her hair. She never went anywhere without her wig. She continues treatment with estrogen blocker, and visits her oncologist regularly. Her blood count for cancer has remained low, and her spirits high. She truly feels blessed because so many women do not survive. Too many do not get diagnosed in time. If not for her yearly mammogram, that deep tissue tumor would have gone undetected and most likely spread to her right breast before detection. She wants me to stress that early detection is the key to survival!! GET YOUR YEARLY MAMMOGRAM!!!!!