Since 1985, October has been Breast Cancer Awareness Month and most people in Cape Girardeau during the month will surely be aware of that. Every October, Cape Girardeau is dominated by pink. The bridge lights shine pink and pink ribbons are tied on many things around town.

The topic of breast cancer awareness was in the news when actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus came out last week and shared that she has breast cancer, according to CBS News. Her announcement shows that anyone and everyone can be affected by breast cancer. Both men and women can be affected by breast cancer. Unfortunately, most people can share a story about a mother, grandmother, friend or possibly themselves having been affected by the cancer.

Below are stories of three people who have dealt with breast cancer in different ways. Emily Long’s story will show that breast cancer can develop at any time and can have grave after effects. Julie Ray’s story puts a spotlight on taking action before breast cancer has a chance to take over. Hannah Wales’ story about her grandmother shows that this cancer does not only affect those diagnosed.

__‘Previvors’__

Elementary, early and special education department chair Julie Ray has an uncommon story about breast cancer. She is not a survivor, she’s a “previvor.”

A previvor is a person who is a survivor “of a predisposition to cancer,” but who has never had cancer, according to the Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE) website.

It was August 2013 when Ray found out she was BRCA 1 positive. She took action at once and had a preventive oophorectomy, which is the removal of the ovaries.

“As a postmenopausal woman, the decision to have my ovaries removed was very easy. They were just there as a risk factor,” she said.

Her family does not have a strong history of breast cancer, however, she had an aunt with ovarian cancer and her father had prostate cancer.

“It wasn’t any kind of red flag warning,” Ray said. “Never even considered that I was high risk for cancer.”

Later her aunt’s daughter was diagnosis with melanoma in the summer of 2013. Ray decided to have genetic testing done and found she was BRCA positive.

BRCA is the gene mutation that can cause women to be at a higher risk for breast and ovarian cancer.

When Ray was tested, she found out she was positive and had a 50 percent chance she had passed it on to her children. She most likely acquired the gene from her father.

She was hopeful her two daughters did not have the gene, however both her daughters were positive.

“My own diagnosis was their diagnosis,” she said.

Being in their 30s, her daughters made different decisions.

Her oldest daughter made the quick decision to remove her ovaries and breasts.

“For her, she felt like she had two ticking time bombs on her chest she couldn’t wait to get off,” Ray said.

Her younger daughter received her test results while she was still building her family. She goes in for testing and observation during the year as prevention.

It took Ray some time, but she decided to have a bilateral mastectomy, a procedure to remove both of her breasts. This was one decision she greatly struggled with. A little over a year after her original diagnosis, she had her breasts removed.

“It felt like there was no good answer but in the end, I didn’t want to live afraid at the time, I didn’t want to live afraid all my life,” she said.

Before having the surgery, she had a “goodbye girls” party for her breasts with close friends and family.

“It was all about laughing and bonding as women,” she said.

Ray recommends any young women check out Bright Pink online. Bright Pink is an organization about making women aware of their possible risk for breast and ovarian cancer at a young age.

She stresses the importance of getting tested and being informed about any decision someone might have to make.

“Don’t think breast cancer is just something that happens to your mother or grandma,” she said.

She said being a previvor is a strange position to be in. She never had cancer, but she had some of the same surgeries someone with cancer would have. However, she never had chemo treatment or the worry of having cancer, she said. She sometimes thinks about what it would have been like if she might not have known but she is sure she made the right decision.

“I don’t ever think about not getting tested because that was never an option for me, I had to know,” she said.

Now two years after her diagnosis, Ray wears a previvor ring. She uses this ring as a talking point to inform others about getting tested.

__Survivor__

While most 21-year-olds were attending college classes and enjoying Friday nights out, Emily Long received her diagnosis of breast cancer.

During her first doctor’s appointment, the lump she felt was pea-sized and in a month’s time it grew to the size of a lime.

“It kind of all happened really fast,” Long said.

The day she received her diagnosis of Stage 3 breast cancer was also the first day of orientation for a new job.

In the days following she met with many doctors and formed a plan how to move forward. She started with chemo, then surgery and finished with radiation.

Long said she had huge support from her family and a boyfriend at the time, however, people changed the way they looked at her.

“They would look at me and didn’t really know if I was sick or the bald thing was just a choice,” she said. “I wore a lot of makeup and I wore a beanie the whole time but it was weird being the cancer girl.”

She started chemo in July 2016 and did 17 rounds by December.

After chemo she had a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction at the same time.

“I just didn’t want to have to go through it again because there is always a chance it can reoccur,” she said.

In April, she finished up radiation, which took a month in St. Louis. She is now cancer free.

“It was like my life was on hold for a year,” she said.

She has a few major effects she is still dealing with from treatment, one being what she calls “chemo brain.” This is where she sometimes will not be able to think of a word or what something is called.

She also has radiation pneumonitis, which makes her cough every now and then.

Today Long is taking two classes while working full time to pay medical bills.

She receives calls and letters on a regular basis about bills. She won’t answer a phone call from an unknown number because she doesn’t know if it will be a collector or not.

“It’s like, ‘Congratulations, you survived, now here’s a bill for X amount of money that you’ve never seen before in your life,’” she said.

She has thought about filing for bankruptcy.

“It’s pretty stressful,” she said. “I try not to think about it but then I get a call.”

Two of her biggest bills are $80,000 and $140,000 and she said she has many other smaller bills.

“I’ve never seen that much money in my entire life,” Long said.

After her fight with breast cancer, personally, Long is not a big fan of the color pink.

“A lot of times when you buy things with pink on them you’re not even supporting a charity — someone is just profiting off Breast Cancer Awareness Month,” Long said.

Long believes there are better ways to support and donate to breast cancer awareness and research.

__Family__

In February 2016 freshman Hannah Wale’s grandmother took a visit to the hospital after feeling a lump in her right breast. Wales said her grandmother did not waste any time getting a test performed because her grandmother’s mother also had breast cancer.

Her grandmother was sent to a specialist and told not to hope for the best. With the results of the test put on a rush order, it was the next day when her family found out it was breast cancer.

Within a week of Wales’ grandmother’s diagnosis, she had a mastectomy to remove her right breast.

“She went ahead and had the one because she didn’t want any chance of it coming back in that one,” Wales said.

After seeing her grandmother after surgery, Wales was driving to work and the song “Even If,” by MercyMe, came over the radio and she was flooded with emotions.

“You always have those moments when something comes on and it’s what you need to hear,” she said.

As the song played she started to cry on her way to work. Wales said seeing her grandmother after surgery was difficult, but not as difficult as the day of her diagnosis and the week that followed. Her grandmother called her to try and make her feel better about the news.

“She was trying to be strong for everybody else,” she said.

In the week following, her grandmother started her chemo treatments. As the chemo treatment started to take its full effect, her grandmother shaved her head and started wearing wigs.

Wales said before her grandmother’s diagnosis her family would spend Sundays with her grandparents, but soon it was more.

“It became a thing, we were there almost every single night,” Wales said.

Before her grandmother’s diagnosis, Wales said she was close with her grandparents.

Her grandmother ended her chemo treatment early due to swelling in her arm. However, Wales’ grandmother is now in remission.

“It went from scary to hopeful,” she said.

With her grandmother in remission, Wales said she did not have to worry about being at school away from her family. When she attended her freshman orientation, she picked up two pink Southeast shirts for herself and her grandmother. Wales has always enjoyed the association of pink and breast cancer, even though she is aware men can be diagnosed as well.

“The light pink for me represents a woman,” she said.