Rene Neff considers herself fortunate.
She’s a retired teacher, a Langley city councilwoman, former art gallery owner, wife, mother and a soon-to-be three-time grandmother. And she survived a horrific diagnosis of cancer in both of her breasts back in 1988 as a 38-year-old mother of a fifth-grade son and twin second-grade girls.
“It was really hard, thinking about that I was gonna die and leave them,” Neff said. “There’s a lot of trauma you carry with you.”
More recently, she was found to have a gene mutation — BRCA1 — that made her far more likely to develop cancer again. That diagnosis came in 2012, while she busy as a then co-owner of Brackenwood Gallery and a councilwoman.
According to the National Cancer Institute, between 55 and 65 percent of women who inherit a harmful BRCA1 mutation will develop breast cancer, and 39 percent of women will develop ovarian cancer by the time they turn 70. Neff was 63 when she learned of her genetic predisposition to breast cancer, and again she was frightened of her own body.
“I thought it hadn’t come back in 20 years and (I) was cancer free,” she said. “To find out I was BRCA1 was quite a shock and that I could get it back was like, ‘Oh God.’ ”
“It’s a terrifying thought, this foreign object in your body,” she added. “Whenever you hear it, you feel that terror coming up.”
That diagnosis led her to have a double mastectomy — the removal of both breasts — and her ovaries removed to reduce the likelihood of cancerous cells taking hold again. She missed only two council meetings while she was recovering from the surgery.
Across the United States of America, hundreds of thousands of women are diagnosed every year. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in 2012 — the most recent year statistics were available — 224,147 women and 2,125 men were diagnosed with breast cancer. Of that total, 41,150 women and 405 men did not survive.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a sweeping cause to encourage women and men to be screened. Breast cancer is a big-time killer in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women (excluding some forms of skin cancer), the most common cause of death from cancer among Hispanic women, and the second most common cause of death from cancer among white, black, Asian/Pacific islanders and Native American women.
Neff, who beat breast cancer once after a long and difficult treatment, said she was amazed by the advancements in detection, prevention, treatment and recovery.
Making the decision to have a double mastectomy was a simple decision.
“To me, there was no choice,” she said. “I didn’t want to play with the roulette.”
But, she acknowledged that it is different for each patient. Actress Angelina Jolie Pitt wrote an op-ed in The New York Times discussing why she underwent the procedure in 2013. In it, Jolie Pitt wrote of the crisis some women face when preparing to lose their breasts and ovaries, some of the physical markers of femininity. But after the surgeries, she wrote, “On a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.”
Had Neff been faced with the decision the first time around as a 38-year-old woman and young mother of three, the choice would have been more challenging. At the end of it, however, she said she would have made the same decision.
“Going through cancer is a terrifying experience,” Neff said. “Doing anything you can to avoid getting it or make sure you catch it early is a very good thing. We are very lucky where we have those opportunities.”
She added: “It’s worth it to do those screenings, they’re very important, even though it’s a painful, irritating thing.”
Think before you pink
A lot of questions have been raised about the effectiveness and legitimacy of pink ribbon marketing. Breast Cancer Action launched a website and project called “Think Before You Pink” to call attention to companies slapping pink ribbons on their products to entice consumers.
Some companies are better at diverting profits and donations toward breast cancer prevention, treatment and research than others.
Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission and all 50 attorneys general announced that four cancer charities swindled people out of $187 million. Only about 3 percent of the funds raised by the Cancer Fund of America, The Breast Cancer Society, Children’s Cancer Fund of America and Cancer Support Services between 2008-2012 were used to help cancer patients. The rest of the money was used on private fundraisers or on the charities’ leaders, of whom they were from a single family.
Two of the charities, Breast Cancer Society and the Children’s Cancer Fund of America, said they would dissolve.
A helpful guide to finding a place to responsibly donate or support is available at www.charitynavigator.org. The website rates charities on how they spend their money on their mission, and has a specific section for charities working to prevent and cure breast cancer. Breast Cancer Society, Inc., for example, has a donor advisory (DA) warning to its profile with an attached explanation of the Federal Trade Commission’s charges against the agency.
One of the overarching themes of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is just that — awareness. The more people know about it, the more people are likely to get screened for it. A modern way of holding yourself accountable is the app available from the National Breast Cancer Foundation and its Early Detection Plan website and smartphone app.
