An Ontario farmer says her family doctor's persistence in reminding her to book a mammogram may have saved her life, Farms.com reports as October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins. Sarah Wynn co-owns Wynn Farms, an apple orchard and agritourism business in Bath, near Greater Napanee.
"I didn't think too much of it, but it was my doctor who kept reminding me it's coming up and that I need to book it," she told Farms.com. Her first mammogram in April led to a second, deeper scan and then a biopsy. On 27 May, at 43, she was told she had invasive lobular carcinoma in her right breast, a cancer that starts in the milk-producing glands, can spread to the lymph nodes and can be present without the lumps usually associated with breast cancer. Two of her lymph nodes were affected.
Wynn chose a double mastectomy with immediate reconstruction in a 12-hour operation on 20 July, followed by radiation and chemotherapy. "My cancer was already spreading when I had my mammogram, so who knows what could've happened if I'd waited any longer," she said.
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women: about one in eight Canadian women will develop it, and more than 32,000 will be diagnosed by the end of this year. For women aged 40 to 49 the incidence is about 140 per 100,000. In Ontario, women as young as 40 can refer themselves for screening through the Ontario Breast Screening Program.
Used to running a busy farm and family of three children, Wynn says treatment has forced her to slow down and trust others with the farm. She hopes her story will push other women to get screened. Farms.com, which wrote the story by Diego Flammini, says it is looking for more women in agriculture willing to share their own experience.
Photo: Jason Meredith / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: Farms.com
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