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Former BET Host Ananda Lewis Bravely Reveals She Has Breast Cancer

“I have been fighting to get cancer out of my body for almost two years.”

Ananda Lewis, the beloved former host of BET’s Teen Summit and MTV’s TRL, revealed that she is battling Stage 3 breast cancer. In a powerful video posted to her Instagram, the 47-year-old said, “I am sharing this with you today because it is the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness month and I have been fighting to get cancer out of my body for almost two years.”

She continued, “What I didn’t understand, and what I need you to understand, the reason why I’m here telling you my business, is because I would have had three or four mammograms by the time they caught it. Instead, I’ve had to have 2 PET [positron emission tomography] scans so far. Guess how many mammograms worth of radiation a PET scan is. Anyone? 30! 30! So 60 mammograms! You do the math.”
RELATED: Black Americans Dying Of Cancer At The Highest Rates | BET
Lewis also added,  “If I had done the mammograms from the time they were recommended when I turned 40, they would’ve caught the tumor in my breast years before I caught it through my own self exam and thermography. And they would have caught it at a place where it was more manageable. Where the treatment of it would have been a little easier. It’s never easy, but I use that word in comparison to what I’m going through now. Instead, what I’m dealing with is stage 3 breast cancer that is in my lymphs. I need you to get your mammograms.”
Lewis revealed she didn’t get mammograms even after seeing her mother go through testing for 30 years.
See the post below:

According to a recent report from NBC News, Black women are 40 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than white women. A recent study from the American Cancer Society  links the high rate of breast cancer amongst Black women to a lack of insurance. According to Annals of Internal Medicine, less than 8 percent of Black Americans participate in clinical trials.

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