“Don’t stop fighting.”
As both of her grandmothers were breast cancer survivors, Jennifer DeJesus scheduled her baseline mammogram at age 36. The results were normal and she was advised to repeat it in 5 years. However, a few years later, at age 38, Jennifer was concerned about her health after her friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her physician sent her for a mammogram which detected an abnormality. Upon further testing, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Considering her family history, she opted for a bilateral mastectomy and during the surgery, an additional early stage cancer not apparent on the mammogram was discovered.
As a driven Director of Admissions for a local college, she worked part-time throughout treatment. At the time her two young daughters were 2 and 4, and Jennifer was determined to keep things as normal as possible. Given the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial, she readily agreed as she wanted to do anything she could to reduce the chance of a recurrence. “Others put themselves through more than they needed to make a difference for me,” she shares. “I want to do the same. It is a small way I can give back.”
Her advice to others is to trust your instinct. “Don’t stop fighting,” she says. “Cancer is a blip, you must keep going as life does not stop with a cancer diagnosis. It may feel like forever when you are going through treatment, but you need to just keep moving forward.”