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Like many breast cancer survivors for Joan Treviño Lawhon her breast cancer detection started with a gut feeling. “My basic tests were within normal limits, but I had what I can only describe as a “gut feeling, “she says. “ I had some very supportive doctors who followed through on my instincts. It took five tests to confirm a malignancy.”
As soon as she heard the diagnosis from her doctors and confirmed her “gut” feeling she immediately got into fighting mode. “We can freeze and let the disease consume us, or we can fight. My choice was to fight. I was going to make sure my choice was an informed one. My husband Garey had lost his valiant battle to pancreatic cancer the year before. I lost a brother to kidney cancer. I thought I would face “my cancer” alone.”
Her close-knit Mexican family and her strong faith in St. Theresa, the Little Flower gave her strength to keep fighting and beat breast cancer.
Today, Joan is an active volunteer with Latinas for A Cure, enjoys traveling, cooking and is a member of her church’s choir.
“Surviving has also allowed me to form a bond with the most amazing women who have also survived. We are joined by an invisible yet most resilient multicolor thread and a very special kind of love for each other.”
Read Joan’s full story on Redes en Accion’s Nuestras Historias.
By The Numbers
25.1
percent
of Latinos remain without health insurance coverage
