Miami, FL – When U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz steps to the lectern at the Capitol Monday to push for greater awareness of the risk of breast cancer in younger women, she’ll be speaking from experience.
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Wasserman Schultz, 42, a mother of three from Broward County, Fla., told The Miami Herald in an interview Saturday that she successfully battled breast cancer for the past year — and is going public with her story in hopes of alerting young women to its prevalence. She’ll introduce legislation Monday that calls for a national media and education campaign targeted to women between 15 and 39.
“I wanted to be able to not just stand up and say ‘I’m a breast cancer survivor,’ … I wanted to find a gap and try to fill it,” said Wasserman Schultz, who underwent seven major surgeries, including a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery while balancing motherhood, Congress and her roles as a chief fundraiser for House Democrats and popular political surrogate, first for Hillary Clinton and then, Barack Obama.
“I had a lot going on last year,” she said with a laugh, sitting in the living room of the Capitol Hill townhouse she shares with two other members of Congress while she’s in town. “I’m a very focused, methodical person and I wasn’t going to let this beat me. I wasn’t going to let it interfere with my life.”
She’ll share her story on national television Monday morning, appearing on ABC-TV’s Good Morning America with anchor Robin Roberts, who had breast cancer in 2007.
“What I realized through the year is, I thought I knew a lot about breast cancer, but I really didn’t, and most young women don’t,” Wasserman Schultz said. Breast cancer in younger women can be particularly aggressive, but it can be more difficult to detect because of breast density. And physicians, Wasserman Schultz said, can be slow to recognize the threat to younger women.
“Young women go skipping along through their life, thinking they’re invincible, not worrying about breast cancer because they think of it as an older woman’s disease,” Wasserman Schultz said, noting that much of the focus is on a woman’s first mammogram, typically administered at age 40.
The death rate from breast cancer has declined for older women, but remains stable for younger women because they are often diagnosed at a later stage, she said.
“It just pains me to know that younger women, because they don’t know and because they’re blown off by physicians many times, and because they squeeze their eyes shut and hope that it’s nothing, that their death rate is much higher,” she said.
Her bill calls for a national education campaign, aimed at informing young women about the risks and encouraging them to conduct routine self exams. It also would give grants to organizations that help younger women with fertility counseling and body image.
Wasserman Schultz discovered a lump in her breast through a self exam, two months after her first mammogram at 40. Though the cancer was detected at an early stage, she also learned that as an Ashkenazi Jew, she was at a greater risk of having the cancer recur in healthy breast tissue, prompting her to have both breasts removed. She was also at increased risk of ovarian cancer and had her ovaries removed — the day after election day. Her final surgery was in December — almost a year to the date of her diagnosis.
Because the cancer was caught so early, she didn’t have to go on chemotherapy or radiation but will have to take the cancer drug Tamoxifen for the next five years.
She said she decided to keep her cancer private, mostly concerned that her young children (then 8-year-old twins and a four-year-old daughter) would worry needlessly, particularly with a mother who was also constantly on the go. They knew she was undergoing surgery — but she didn’t tell them the cause.
“I knew from my doctors that if I went through their recommended course of treatment that I would get through it and I’d be fine, that I could come out the other side and confidently tell my children, `Mommy’s fine,”’ she said. She planned to tell them Saturday night.
She scheduled her treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center in nearby Bethesda, Maryland, during congressional recesses, so as not to miss votes in Congress.
And she says that keeping her illness to a small circle of family and friends allowed her to “maintain control” over a situation that she couldn’t control.
“I didn’t want it to define me,” she said. “I didn’t want when you wrote a story about me, I would become `Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who is battling breast cancer,” she said. “I didn’t want that to be my name because I knew I was going to be fine.”
My cousin a”h got breast cancer at the young age of 28. Her doctor told her it can not be cancer at that age. Unfortunately she passed away 4 years later.
May Hashem help us to get rid of this horrible disease in the world.
I just found out that I tested negative for the BBCA gene, B”H. I was tested because my 2 cousins (sisters) are positive & 1 has had breast cancer twice. My sister is waiting for her results. And sadly, just because I’m negative it doesn’t follow my sister automatically is.
Please…if there’s a history in your family, GET TESTED!! It’s a simple blood test.
I found out that although I could still R”L develop the disease, if I did carry the gene I would be 85% more likely to develop breast cancer & 60% more likely to develop ovarian cancer. But at least I know I haven’t passed the gene onto my kids.
Ladies…do not avoid mammograms & screenings. Be responsible for your health.
MEN…YOU CAN BE CARRIERS! You can also get breast cancer! (I know personally a man who died from it…and he was an oncologist.) If your mothers/sisters/aunts/grandmothers have or had it, you can pass the gene onto your kids! I was tested because my cousins’ father & my father were brothers & they don’t know which side of the family passed on the gene to them.
Thanks, VIN, for posting this. This is the best post you’ve ever made. May everyone only use these articles for information & not because they need them.
I hope it goes through. When she’s finished maybe she can go to the UK & get the jewish ladies there more aware because i’ve heard it’s getting more & more common in the UK.
lets all hope she and others have a refuah shlama
#5 What was so graphic – it seems I missed those parts somehow. Thanks VIN for posting this. May Hashem protect us from all diseases and Tzaros.
dws is an incredible legistlator and leader. she is one of the up and coming greats.
during the israel war in lebanon two summers ago, she brought her daughters to the house chamber (ans the grandchildren of shoa survivors) when she made her speech supporting Israel in the conflict.
As an american jewish woman who has suffered from this machla people should heed her call to pay attention to the risk and for increased research into the reality of the ashkenazic brca1 gene.
I get the gist of what was said in #7 from Gitty’s (#10). I can’t believe there are such kleinekepeldik people out there. I trust no one in his family has ever suffered from breast, cervical, prostate, colon, or ovarian cancer. Disgusting words. Maybe they’ve only had the “nicer” variety: lung, bone, brain, skin (that’s a questionable one), kidney, tongue…
Don’t you people get it? This is a wake up call for prevention. When people are R”L dying, I promise you the only tznius they are worried about is what they’ve always worried about. Not naming the part of the body that has this terrible disease.
We need MORE education, not holier-than-thou, head-in-the-sand neanderthals.
Sorry, one last post (I hope!) #3 mentions the UK. I just read on the Net that a “celebrity” from a TV reality show (previously an unknown, regular woman) died at age 27 from cervical cancer which had spread. She was first diagnosed last summer.
It just shows this is a disease that attacks the young, the old, & the middle aged. It takes no prisoners. The more information & awareness given to the Jewish community & others means more lives saved. VIN is to be commended for allowing this dialogue to continue. It can only be helpful in changing the mindset of others, esp. people like #7 .
A personal PS. My mother in law A”H NEVER had an exam, or tests, or anything. She was too private a person to allow some doctor to ever examine her. By the time she died the doctors stopped looking for where the disease was. Everywhere they checked she had it. They didn’t even know where it had started. Please take care of yourselves, ladies AND gentlemen. Don’t die a horrible death like my mother in law. It’s not necessary.
Ladies and gentlemen please …there is no such thing as embarrassment when it comes to your health or the health of your families. If it doesn’t feel right , look right etc bring it to the attention of a quaified MD. You can start with a general practioner but if it is a part specfic to women please see and OBGYN and for men the same applies see a Urologist. , you are just another body to them…they have seen it all. Although to most of us the letters MD after a doctors name implies that the know it all, the truth is that they many times don’t. See the right MD for what the issue may be and if not sure ask friends family etc someone will know or simply call up the medical society where you reside they will be helpful. NEVER EVER BE EMBARRASSED!!
it seems that the original offending comment, number 5
has been removed. all replies to that comment imply that he took issue with the usage of the word breast in a headline.
how messed up is our community???
The fear of talking about things like breast cancer, testicular cancer, colon cancern, penile cancer, etc. means that a lot of people don’t really have a good knowledge of their hereditary risk and what types of cancer they need to be more vigilant for. I know someone who believed that his grandparents on both sides died of “stomach” cancer. Had he known it was truly colon cancer and covered up because such body parts weren’t mentioned then, he would have started screening at a younger age. The recommendation to begin colonoscopies at age 50 is only for people without a family history. Same goes for breast cancer and the age at which mammograms should begin. Any how, thanks to the Congresswoman for coming forward with her story, and may she stay well.
Personally I find DWS a left wing nut. But I applaud her for being vocal about this. Not too long ago there was a story about Maimonedes Hospital, specifically how the Chinese and the Chareidim hide in shame about cancer.
I can’t speak for the Chinese, but our people are worried about the stigma cancer causes or the unfortuante situation that your kids’ shidduch ranking get hurt. This is crazy. We hide things that could save our lives out of fear of being a bad sidduch.
We also had a lot of people on VIN ripping into the Chabad of Bimghamton running a fashion show to raise awareness. I heard from someone Chabad at SUNY Albany had a breast cancer awareness Shabbat. This is not a “Vaad Hatzinus” issue. This, in my lay person’s opinion, is pikuach nefesh.
Please note, I am far from a posek or a self proclaimed gadol hador like many of you. But I think the rabbis need to come out of the dark ages. Tell your kids about the family’s history. You can save their lives by allowing them to understand what real and potential medical issues you have in your family.
For those of you offended by the clinical/medical discussion of breasts or any body part, may the RSO help you overcome your ignorance and stupidity.