R&B singer Shanice has opened up about being diagnosed with breast cancer after she avoided getting mammograms for years.
On Wednesday (October 30), Shanice appeared on Good Morning America where she opened up about her health journey.
The R&B singer said she was in her mid-40s when doctors told her that they found a cancerous lump in her breast. However, further testing revealed that the lump was actually a cyst, which required no additional testing.
Shanice admitted she was so afraid of receiving another misdiagnosis that she avoided getting mammograms for eight years.
"Because of the fear that I had when they thought they saw something, I didn't go for eight years," Shanice, now 51, said.
After skipping her routine mammograms for nearly a decade, Shanice said she decided to get screened in March after she felt a lump in her breast.
The screening led to her breast cancer diagnosis. Doctors initially thought Shanice had ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a non-invasive, stage zero cancer trapped inside the milk ducts. However, while undergoing a double mastectomy in May, doctors discovered the singer had a stage 1, one-centimeter tumor in her breast.
"When I had my surgery and they told me I had cancer, I literally lost my smile," Shanice recalled. "But I wanted to come on the show to encourage women that you have to keep smiling. I got my smile back."
Shanice said she's sharing her story to encourage other women to get their annual mammograms.
"I just want to tell women how important it is to get your mammograms," she said. "If I would have gone sooner, I could have caught [my breast cancer diagnosis] when it was just at stage zero."
"Put that fear aside," Shanice added. "If you get checked early, you can beat this thing. It's not a death sentence. If you can get there early, you'll live."
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