I learned all about breast cancer after my mom, Bridget Bocchino Hochstuhl, was diagnosed with the disease in 2010. I was only three years old at the time, but over the years, as I became old enough to understand, I learned that breast cancer is the most common cancer found in women in the United States, second only to skin cancer. I learned that each year in the United States, there are an estimated 240,000 diagnosed cases of breast cancer in women and around 2,100 in men. And I learned that the disease occurs when the DNA in breast cells mutates, creating cancerous cells that destroy the normal ones.

I also learned that while Breast Cancer Awareness Month is October, breast cancer awareness should exist year-round. This is because early detection is key to beating the disease, so it’s critical that women get regular mammograms, X-rays of the breast, according to the guidelines set by their doctors and the American Cancer Society (ACS). Being diagnosed with cancer is not always a death sentence; my mom is living proof of that. And she wanted to share her own story of survival in the hopes of helping others do the same.

When my mom was first diagnosed in 2010, she was an otherwise healthy and fit 38-year-old. She had just lost 30 of the 50 pounds she had gained while pregnant with my younger brother, whom she was breastfeeding at the time.

When she first felt the lump in her breast, she thought it was a clogged milk duct. After all, she used to get them when she was breastfeeding her first child, me. At the urging of her coworkers, however, she got a mammogram just to be sure. Luckily, the health insurance company where she worked had a mobile mammogram machine on site to make it easier for employees to get the diagnostic test while at work.

She was officially diagnosed with breast cancer on Aug. 5, 2010, while throwing my brother’s first birthday party. She told my dad and her own mother, my grandmother, about the cancer, but she kept it a secret from most people in her life because she needed privacy and time to process the information.

After the diagnosis, things moved quickly, and my mother had a double mastectomy the following month, on Sept. 15, 2010. The pathology results showed that the cancer had spread to 28 lymph nodes in her armpit, thereby classifying it as a stage IV breast cancer diagnosis.

In the fight to save her life, my mother began the first of what she thought would be 12 rounds of a chemotherapy regimen, which was estimated would take six months to finish. However, the 12 rounds quickly turned into 30, and six months stretched to over one and a half years, due to the anaphylactic reaction she had to the treatment. After the chemotherapy treatments, she underwent 52 rounds of radiation. By the time she had finished all the chemo and radiation, she was in a severely weakened state.

The medical procedures didn’t end there, however. From 2010 to 2023, my mother underwent 18 breast reconstruction surgeries, which included adding and adjusting expanders, then adding and adjusting implants.

Other complications arose during her treatments. For one, the excessive radiation she’d undergone caused her to experience chronic cellulitis. She also suffered from multiple side effects due to staying on a chemo pill that had acted as an estrogen blocker for 10 years. At one point, an oncologist saved my mom’s life when she suffered a pulmonary embolism. At the time, she was estimated to only have about three weeks left to live, but she beat the odds and survived.

It has been 13 years since my mom’s diagnosis. She survived breast cancer, and she’s the strongest person I know. She says she fought to survive in order to raise her kids and be here for her family. I love my mom with my entire heart; she is the kindest, sweetest, most generous person who could ever exist. She puts everyone else above herself, no matter what she is going through.

Ever since I was old enough to do so, I have supported her on her 13-year-long journey toward becoming a survivor of the disease. Breast cancer is a serious issue that often goes unnoticed, which in turn, can cost people their lives. Screening tests in the form of mammograms are the best defense; they can detect cancer early, way before a person has symptoms. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), women should consider starting annual mammograms at age 40, or even earlier if there is a family history of the disease. At age 45, the ACS recommends that all women start getting annual mammograms. People who have cancer in their family can also get genetic testing before this age to see if they carry genes for the disease.

During her breast cancer journey, my mother taught me life lessons that I’ll carry with me always. I learned about being strong, the healing power of love and the importance of protecting my health. I learned about breast cancer prevention strategies, and the importance of getting regular screenings for early detection of the disease. Who knows, from all I’ve learned, I might save my own life one day. All of this is thanks to what I learned from my beloved mom, breast cancer survivor Bridget Bocchino Hochstuhl.