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It can happen to anyone by Kat Gore and Angela Garcia-Cook
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ancer doesn’t discriminate. Cancer doesn’t care about your age, gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic status. Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in American women. According to the North Bay Cancer Alliance, the highest rate of breast cancer in the United States is in the San Francisco Bay Area. Looking at statistics over the past few years, nearly 400 Sonoma County women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually and around 85 Sonoma County women die from breast cancer a year. Angela Garcia-Cook was 41 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She was at the top of her game before the diagnosis. “I felt like I was in the best physical condition I’d ever been in, running 28 miles a week,” she said. Garcia-Cook was in the process of buying Healdsburg Physical Therapy and had two young children, a husband and her mother to care for. She said that the diagnosis happened at a terrible time. “Prior to my cancer diagnosis, I would have said, ‘No way, I couldn’t get cancer.’ I exercise regularly; I eat a healthy diet, low in saturated fats and carbohydrates and I have no family history of breast cancer. I even nursed my babies, which is also supposed to be protective,” GarciaCook said. On the day that Garcia-Cook discovered her cancer, she was driving in the car with her sister,
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talking about how she should probably get a mammogram – she had carried the slip for a
mammogram in her purse for a year, but hadn’t gone in for the test. Later that day, she went for a run, took a
shower and discovered a lump in her left armpit. Medical experts recommend selfbreast exams monthly. The American Cancer Society recommends that women age 40 and older have an annual mammogram. Women in their 20s and 30s should have a clinical breast exam included in their regular health exam every three years. At first, Garcia-Cook wanted to ignore the lump she had discovered in the shower, then decided to investigate further. “I knew it was cancer by the time I turned off the water. I still call it divine intervention. I went in to see the doctor the next day, who sent me for a mammogram, then a breast ultrasound, which led to a biopsy that day. The diagnosis was confirmed two days later,” she said.
See Not Me page 9
Inside Page 3: Local Health Centers Page 4: Battling Breast Cancer Page 5: 5 Prevention Tips Page 7: 15 years of Barb’s Race Page 8: Benefit wine events Page 10: Survivor Walk Oct. 10 Photo by Kat Gore NOT ME — Angela Garcia-Cook felt in her top physical condition when she was diagnosed with her first bout of cancer at age 41..
The Healdsburg Tribune
The Windsor Times