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Diagnosed with Breast Cancer as a Teen
When you're a breast cancer survivor, Race for the Cure can get pretty emotional. Especially when you're only 20-years-old. Justina Ross found lumps in her breast when she was just eighteen. Walking as a survivor in the race, she says, "It's just overwhelming? all these people... all the love just everywhere." Her diagnosis didn't come easy. Because she's so young she says initially, "My surgeon looked at the ultrasound pictures and said because of my age and you know? it could never be cancer." Ross chose to have the lumps removed and proved the surgeon wrong. It was cancer. Ross's mother, Kate Ross gets choked up when she says, "I actually was with her the day that she found out and it's indescribable what you think when they tell you? when they tell you something like that." So Ross's parents, aunts, cousins and friends helped her get through breast cancer treatment. "All the prayers and all the love, they're great," says Ross. And now she's celebrating. Not only is she a survivor, her team of support has grown by one. Ross, herself, is now a mother to a little girl she named Patience. When asked about her daughter's name she says, "I was really nervous about being a mom so I kind of needed a reminder." Reminders are important in Ross' life. She says her mother told her to check herself for signs of breast cancer, starting at a young age. She says, "If I hadn't started until I was twenty, that might have been too late." Now, Ross reminds girls she works with at a Saint Paul recreation center to do the same. She says, "I can't stress enough for young women to just be aware of your body? know what's not quite right." It's a message Patience will get too.
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