Thank you for the opportunity.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
My name is Feather Janz, as I said before. I was first diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 23. I detected a lump in my breast when I was 20 years old and had gone for numerous tests, including an ultrasound, that did not detect what was occurring in my breasts due to a highly dense breast situation that I was not aware of.
The three lesions grew in my breast. At the time I was scheduled for surgery and was convinced it was not cancer, the largest mass in my breast was five centimetres in diameter. I went in for surgery and then was told, at the age of 23, that I in fact had highly aggressive grade three breast cancer that quite likely could threaten my life. I underwent a radical mastectomy and thankfully didn't need any subsequent treatment at that time, and I would remain cancer free for many years.
I felt very passionate about really changing the face of breast cancer in our country. Being a 23-year-old athletic young woman, I was not expecting to fall into this diagnosis.
Twelve years later, I had continued on with my life. I got married and had a couple of beautiful daughters. When they were turning two and four years old, I wasn't feeling especially well. I had chosen to maintain my right breast because I really believed that because I had had breast cancer, all of our medical procedures and testing would catch it in time for me. I really believed that. I had been going for tests for four years and telling them that I didn't feel my breast felt normal, but I did not have another breast to compare it to.
I went to mammography continually--every six months to twelve months--and nothing was detected until I started to not feel well. I actually went to have a prophylactic mastectomy because I was quite convinced that something wasn't right; a doctor convinced me to go for a mammogram and an ultrasound prior to that. I have my reports sitting in front of me, which highlighted in my mammogram “high dense breast tissue, too dense, quite dense, not able to see any abnormalities” and an ultrasound stating quite similar things as well, unfortunately. Then my pathology report from my mastectomy one month and three days later stated that it was an advanced, aggressive disease that had already spread to my lymph nodes.
Thankfully, the surgery and the subsequent six months of aggressive chemotherapy, two months of maximum radiation therapy, and another year of Herceptin treatment did what they needed to do. That robbed my family of a lot of precious mommy time, but I'm here today, a 40-year-old healthy woman, and in every way I feel stronger.
But I was shocked when I found out in October that probably the base reason for this happening in my life was this extremely highly dense breast tissue. I had never been informed. I had never been told, and I had been working for an advocate and working with Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, travelling around the country speaking and raising awareness. I knew that young dense breast tissue didn't work as well in mammography, but I was not informed of my increased high risk of being five to six times more likely to get another breast cancer because of that. I had no idea. I was a highly informed, trained woman with the B.C. Cancer Agency who was teaching workshops on breast health, and even I didn't know that.
So something needs to change. I implore you to help make that happen for women like me. We represent only a small portion of a lot of women who are affected in this way.
Thank you.