Both women battled breast cancer after they delayed getting screened. Now, they’re hoping to save lives by telling their stories.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two Charlotte women who put off their mammograms for years – only to discover cancer – are celebrating being cancer-free today and hoping to spread awareness to help other women.
Both women battled breast cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic – after both delayed getting screened – and both women saved lives by telling their stories. Now they’re hoping to save even more women.
Both Meg Robertson and Amy Hyland Jones delayed getting mammograms.
“I was busy and working really hard and thinking I have no family history and this is not going to be what is going to get me and that was not smart,” Jones remembered.
Jones, the head of communications for investment banking at Wells Fargo, finally got one in 2020 and was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer just before the world shut down.
“It started with a premonition almost in December 2019. I just knew something was wrong. I was doing a self-check and I had skipped three years of mammograms and I was 49, and I said I just know I need to go in and get a screening.”
Meg Robertson, who works with nonprofits and is an executive coach, delayed her mammogram during the pandemic like so many others. When she finally did go in, she had cancer in both breasts. Because of our original story with Robertson, at least one woman got checked and found her own cancer.
The same thing happened after Jones first spoke to us.
“A very good friend of mine’s sister saw the spot in August 2020, prompted her to get a mammogram and she also discovered cancer.”
The American Cancer Society says 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, and that number is steadily rising. Breast cancer is the most common cancer for women outside of skin cancer.
“I’m great, I’m doing really well,” Jones said.
Both Robertson and Jones are now celebrating being cancer-free.
But both say they are celebrating something else just as important–helping other women discover their own cancers and work to fight them.
“Maybe it was worth it, it helped her so maybe it was worth it,” she said. “It just makes the not-so-fun parts of it a little more palatable,” Robertson said.
Jones added, “If you can have one person go in and get that screening and learn something that’s gonna change the course of their life, that’s why I do this.”
The American Cancer Society suggests women over 40 get annual mammograms, even if you don’t have a family history. If you are high risk, they suggest starting at the age of 30. That includes women with the BRCA gene.
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