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Mostly Cloudy How to beat breast cancer
For Miss Wantagh Ambassador Emma Carey, breast cancer is an evil that has affected many loved ones in her life. For her community outreach mission, she decided to put together a seminar on the importance of early breast cancer detection. On May 18, Carey spoke to more than 30 people at Wantagh High School about the risks of the disease and how to perform a self-breast exam.
“Cancer knows no age, race, sex or religion,” Carey said. “Anyone can be diagnosed with it at any time. All it takes is the mutation of a singular cell in someone’s body to give them this terrible disease that has the power to potentially kill them if it isn’t caught early enough.”
According to breastcancer.org, about 1 in 8 women in the United States will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. In 2016, an estimated 246,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women, along with 61,000 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer.
“I wanted to do this because this isn’t something that is taught regularly at school for an extended amount of time,” Carey said. “I feel we needed a night where people could sit down and just listen to a survivor speak. Having a separate event can help people understand it more.”
Throughout the night, Carey had various guest speakers share their knowledge of the disease and the risks involved for all people. Survivor Dolores Persky, of Wantagh, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and shared how she battled to overcome the disease.
“Finding a lump doesn’t always mean you have cancer, but you still need to get checked,” she said. “ You need to exercise, eat right, sleep well and just take care of your body.
“Losing is not an option,” Persky added. “You just have to put on your boxing gloves and keep your fight going.”
Wantagh health education teacher Lisa Fugazzi also spoke at the seminar and demonstrated how to perform a proper self-breast examination. “You mostly want to look at changes in shape and texture,” she said. “It’s so important to start breast exams early and to lead a healthy lifestyle.”
Overall, Carey said she felt happy to know that she could help community members with preventative measures and educate people her own age about breast cancer and detecting symptoms early.
“My favorite part of this event was feeling the support from my family and friends,” Carey added. “People can share this information with friends who live in other towns and they can also post about it on social media. Hopefully, this type of stuff will pick up elsewhere and other people will want to hold seminars like this in their own school.”
