Singer Shanice reveals breast cancer story and urges others not to skip mammograms; “If you can get there early, you will survive.”

Mammograms can be scary, but as R&B singer Shanice knows, not taking them can lead to rather more terrifying results.

A mammogram in his 40s led to the misdiagnosis of an ultimately benign cyst as a cancerous mass. Although the result was positive, the health concerns were enough for the “I Love Your Smile” singer to skip further mammograms, that are advisable yearly after the age of 40.

“Because of the fear I had when they thought they saw something, I didn’t go there for eight years,” said Shanice, whose full name is Shanice Wilson-Knox.Good morning America” during a recent speech.

Overcoming her fear of further misdiagnosis, the 51-year-old singer finally returned for one more scan in March when she felt a lump in her breast. The results revealed one other terrifying – and this time accurate – diagnosis. The mother of two children was diagnosed ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS)an early type of breast cancer that will develop within the milk ducts of 1 or each breasts.

Although DCIS is non-aggressive, normally non-invasive and easy to treat, it is usually common and accounts for 20% to 25% of recent breast cancer diagnoses annually, according to data Cleveland Clinic. Risk aspects include dense breast tissue it’s more common in black women and can make mammograms harder to read because dense breast tissue and tumors are similarly visible in the photographs. It is price noting that the variety of DCIS cases is increasing, and experts consider that this trend is due to lower rates of diagnosis and treatment.

In Shanice’s case, the diagnosis led her to determine to have a double mastectomy, a procedure she underwent in May. The surgery turned out to be more essential than initially thought, because it revealed a one-centimeter grade 1 tumor in a single breast.

“When I had surgery and was told I had cancer, I literally lost my smile,” she told GMA host Michael Strahan. For months, she didn’t reveal either her diagnosis or her double mastectomy. In September, she split her Instagram storyincluding a video of her within the hospital before surgery.

“This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to face in my life, but I know God is with me and everything will be fine,” she said within the video.

Featured Stories

In the post’s caption, she detailed her diagnosis and treatment, thanking each her medical team and her community of family, friends and additional health care professionals, including her longtime husband and former reality TV co-star, actor and comedian Flex Alexander. “Thank God I caught it early… I wasn’t ready to talk about it then, but now I’m strong enough to talk about it,” she wrote, encouraging others to be vigilant about their breast health. “Everyone please check.”

In an interview with GMA, she echoed that advice, telling the show’s hosts, “I just want to tell women how important it is to get a mammogram… If I had gone earlier, I could have caught (breast cancer) just in time at stage zero.”

“Put that fear aside,” she continued. “If you get tested earlier, you can beat this disease. This is not a death sentence. If you can get there early, you will survive.

Shanice assured viewers that she is now cancer-free and that there is not only life but joy on the opposite side of a breast cancer diagnosis. “I wanted to be on the show to encourage women to smile,” she said. “I got my smile back.”