For Jessica McDonald, October may have gone by as just another month in the year.
In 2017, the young mother in Geneva said she had not been aware of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month. McDonald had not had a mammogram. Now she is a living, breathing example of breast cancer awareness.
Back in 2017, McDonald and her husband had their second child – a boy – to join their daughter.
All four were happy and healthy, up until New Year’s Day 2018.
“I got to the landing of the stairs and just happened to reach to my side and discovered the lump – and thought, ‘That wasn’t there before,'” McDonald said.
At age 33, McDonald was too young to even start getting a regular mammogram. But 11 days after discovering that lump, she learned that she had breast cancer.
“I wasn’t someone who did self breast checks so I wondered: how long had it been there?,” McDonald said.
