October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and few people are more aware of breast cancer than Mary Smith. She’s been living with breast cancer all her life, and she doesn’t even have it. Instead, breast cancer has struck every other female member of her family over the age of 40.

Before she was even in her teens, Mary, now a medical assistant at NHB’s internal medicine department, saw her grandmother die from cancer. By the time Mary was 20, she watched her aunt die from it, too. Her mother has it. Even her younger sister has it.

“At the age of 16 I was told breast cancer was going to be a part of our lives,” Mary said.

“Mary’s probably the second female in her family over the age of 40 not to get cancer,” said her husband, Roger Smith. “That’s going back five generations.”

While the standard risk for women to contract breast cancer is one in eight, Mary’s family has a hereditary gene that makes them more susceptible. For Mary’s family and those like them, the odds of getting breast cancer are closer to seven in eight. It’s traditional for Mary’s family to get tested for the gene, and Mary’s the first to come back negative.

“She’s broken the chain,” said Roger.

“There’s a guilt complex you get when you come back from not having the gene,” she said. “I compare it to getting the bigger slice of cake. I’m glad I got the bigger slice, but I feel bad for everyone else who didn’t get one.”

Being free of the gene doesn’t mean she can’t get the cancer. Mary said she and her daughter still have to take an active role in being female.

“It’s still one in eight,” she said.

Even though she’s at less of a risk than other women in her family, Mary has still seen first hand the effects of cancer through its effects on her sister and aunt.  Mary was with her sister at the hospital when she had her breasts removed, and, before her genetic test results came back, Mary was considering the same operation herself as a preventative step. 

Mary also aided her aunt during the last days of her life after the cancer had spread from her breasts to other parts of her body.

“She was like a holocaust victim,” said Mary. “There was nothing left for the cancer to take from her.”

Experiences like these have made Mary and Roger active members of the cancer awareness community.  Even if it’s as simple as wearing a pin or as complex as participating in the annual Relay for Life, they said they’re always looking for ways to help out. The most frequent way they try to help is by encouraging women to get tested.  It could be as simple as a clinical exam or as involved as a genetic test.

Mary and Roger have found a lot of people feel if they’re not tested for cancer, they can trick themselves into thinking they won’t get it. But early detection is key to treating it, and these people are just asking for it by ignoring the opportunity to get tested.

“I hope the ones who say ‘it won’t happen to me’ go and take the test,” she said. “Don’t be afraid of the answers.”

But, with the ability to detect cancer early comes the hope that more people will survive it. Mary’s own test results have given her new hope, and she wants others to share that same confidence.

“We know that every year that goes by, somebody is surviving this,” she added. “There are a lot of happy stories out there. I didn’t think in my whole life I’d be a happy story. I got the bigger slice of cake.”