Wanda Sykes

Cancer Type – Breast

Bio – Wanda Sykes the comedian only wanted a breast reduction, and did not expect to find out she had distal Carcinoma in situ. Read her story here…

Short Story – At the age of 47, the actress-comedian admitted she had breast cancer and elected to have a mastectomy. This was no laughing matter, and probably why it was such a shock to see the funny, happy woman going through personal “life stuff.”

Her cancer was found when she went in for a cosmetic breast reduction procedure. “It wasn’t until after the reduction that the lab work, the pathology, that they found that I had DCIS [ductal carcinoma in situ] in my left breast. I was very, very lucky because DCIS is basically stage-zero cancer. So I was very lucky, ” she stated in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres.

At the time of the of the diagnosis she faced a decision. Go to the doctor every three months for a mammogram and MRI to see if the disease was spreading, or bite the bullet and have a double mastectomy. “Cancer is Cancer,” she stated, and chose to have the surgery. With breast cancer history on her mother’s side of the family, it just made sense.

When she told her wife, Alex, about the diagnosis, she lost it. Sykes knew they would get through it. Grateful for her hurting back form her then size Triple-D breasts, she knew they caught it early. “I made my decision because I love life and I know I’m blessed. The kids are also a huge part because you want to be around for them. My scars? I barely see them. I feel whole; I really do. Because every day, I get to say, ‘There’s no cancer.’ I’m healthy, and that’s beautiful.”

Sykes could have taken Tamoxifen and waited, yet she weighed the options. Her story is a good reason to know your family history to make the best educated decision you can with your doctor.

Thank you Wanda for standing up to cancer and encouraging others to do the same.

Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/iamwandasykes/

Image Credits – By Greg Hernandez (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons