Breast Cancer Survivor Advocates for the Health of Others

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States and accounts for about 30 percent of all new female cancers diagnosed each year. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in women. Despite a lower incidence rate, Black and African American women are 41 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than Caucasian women. 

The American Cancer Society estimates that there are more than 3.8 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. Angela Fielding, Co-President of the IMPACT NRG and Director of Provider Experience and Network Transformation/Humana Healthy Horizons, is a 3-year breast cancer survivor.

Angela shares her story of being diagnosed with breast cancer and discusses the importance of access to and utilization of sophisticated digital diagnostic techniques to detect breast cancer in women with dense breasts.

“I’m a Survivor! In 2019, just before the pandemic struck, my life was seemingly turned upside down with a single phone call I received just as I was picking up my daughter from middle school. I could see her walking toward me waving excitedly as I waited in the parking lot talking with the pathologist who was sharing the news that I had breast cancer. I remember how I felt in that moment – indescribably scared and helpless.

This marked the beginning of my cancer and wellness journey. In that very moment, I fought back tears and had to put on a brave face as I was not yet ready to share the weight of that news with my daughter as she gleefully made her way into the car.

Fortunately for me, my cancer was detected at an early stage. The trepidation, anxiety and weight of that diagnosis hung over me like a ballast until after my surgical procedure to remove the cancer. I was aware that for many Black and African American women most breast cancer is caught at an advanced stage, and often, it is a more aggressive form of cancer. I was acutely aware of this fact because my mother lost her battle with an aggressive form of breast cancer that had metastasized throughout her body some years earlier.

Despite lifelong healthy and clean living, having a mother who was a dietician, and growing up in a middle-class environment, I was faced with this grim diagnosis, just as my mother had been years before. I am the youngest of seven children with three female siblings, but the only one to develop breast cancer.

Like many women who undoubtedly ask, why me? I found myself doing the same. Since my recovery and healing, I find myself thinking, why not me? I had to live this experience to advocate for other women and to come out on the other side of it bolder and braver. Oddly enough, being a cancer survivor has become my superpower. The journey has made me stronger, even more committed to my health and well-being and to the health of others.

The message that I want to share with women, particularly Black and African American women about my experience, is that early detection is essential to survival. We must ensure that we are being intentional about getting breast cancer screenings. Early detection was due to vigilance with my examinations and self-advocacy.

My prognosis would have been vastly different had I not been intentional about obtaining a mammogram and advocated for a specific type of examination called tomography. This digital imaging technique provides for cross sectional images [3D-like pictures] that can better detect changes in breast tissue, especially for women with dense breast tissue [which is common in] Black and African American women.

In over twenty years of receiving routine breast screening mammography – despite family history of breast cancer, despite being diagnosed with dense breast tissue, and despite being called back for follow-up mammograms nearly every time which caused extreme anxiety for me – this time – the one time that I actually had breast cancer, yet unaware – I asked for tomography.

I believe this part of my journey is nothing short of Divine intervention. I get chills remembering the words of my physician stating that if it had not been for the tomography, due to the size and location of the cancer that had tunneled beneath my dense breast tissue, a routine mammography screening – that had been prescribed year after year, and even that very year – would not have detected the cancer.

I’m reminded of the proverb, ‘There, but for the grace of God, go I.’ I’m extremely humbled and blessed to be able to share my story with the knowledge that so many others cannot.”

While health disparities continue to persist among Black and African American women with respect to timeliness of diagnosis, difference in type of treatments received, and long-term health outcomes, there are things that we can do.

During Breast Cancer Awareness Month and every month, please remember these simple actions to take to improve breast cancer outcomes in women: 

• Increase mammogram uptake 
• Follow screening guidelines 
• Listen to your inner voice and advocate for your health needs 
• Live and encourage a healthy lifestyle – “Inspire Health!” 
• Increase awareness of breast cancer and educational outreach focused on Black and African American women and other women of color who continue to have lower screening rates and higher cancer mortality rates 

Learn how Humana advances health equity in the annual Impact Report.