Cancer survivor thankful for life

Young woman grateful for early detection

This Thanksgiving Destiny Olds doesn’t have to think twice about what she’s thankful for. Olds, 32, is thankful she’s cancer-free.

Olds knows what it’s like to lose a mother to breast cancer.

Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40 and died from the disease a few years later.

That’s why Olds was tested for the BRCA gene test – a test that looks for a specific genetic mutation that often causes breast cancer. Her test was negative.

But that’s not the end of her story.

“Surprising it came back negative,” Olds said. “It is just chance I also had breast cancer.”

It was her husband Roy who first found the pea-sized lump.

“I tried to brush it off as a lump do to my menstrual cycle coming,” Olds said. “In honesty, I was just trying not to think about the possibility. At the time it was my daughter’s birthday and I was busy preparing for her princess pirate party.”

Olds has four children, ages 12, 8, 7 and 3 – three of them are daughters. And she remembered her own loss.

“I went to my primary and told him about the lump and he told me that I was too young for cancer and a mammogram,” she said. “He didn’t even check the lump. That didn’t settle well with me. I had a feeling it was cancer, so I went to my ob/gyn and he referred me to genetic testing and my first mammogram and sonogram.

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