Former MTV veejay and TV personality Ananda Lewis is urging women to take the proper precautions and get mammograms as she reveals that she has been battling Stage 3 breast cancer.
On Thursday, Oct. 1, the 47-year-old shared the shocking news in an Instagram TV video with her 46,000 followers as part of a kickoff for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Lewis started her 6-minute video by first apologizing to friends and family who would be finding out about her diagnosis for the first time — the star had been battling the illness for almost two years. She admitted that she delayed getting mammograms for a long time because her mother went and had them consistently and eventually was diagnosed with breast cancer. Lewis just assumed it was the low energy X-rays that had exposed her mother to the disease.
“I watched my mom get mammograms for 30 years almost, and the end of that she had breast cancer and I said, ‘Huh! Radiation exposure for years equals breast cancer. Yeah, I’m going to pass,'” Lewis said. “‘Thanks anyway.'”
The former BET host said she still stands by the thought that an accumulation of radiation in your body can cause cancer. However, she also said that had she gone and had the testing done about 3 or 4 times, her cancer would have been caught earlier, and her radiation exposure would have been minimal.
“Instead, I’ve had to have 2 PET scans so far! Guess how many mammograms worth of radiation a PET scan is. Anyone?” the host asked. “30! 30! So 60 mammograms! You do the math.”
Lewis went on to mention that, “If I had done the mammograms from the time they were recommended when I turned 40, they would have caught the tumor in my breast years before I caught it through my own breast exam, self-exam, and thermography.” She added, “They would have caught it at a place where it was more manageable, where the treatment of it would have been a little easier. It’s never easy, but I use that word in comparison to what I’m going through now.”
She shared that she presently has Stage 3 breast cancer in her lymph nodes and has opted 100 percent for alternative natural treatments, which she said have helped the condition “not spread like wildfire in my body.” However, until it’s gone, Lewis said she has a lot of work to do. “I need you to get your mammograms,” she told viewers.
“I wish I could go back. I have a 9-year-old I need to be here for. I have no intention on leaving him,” Lewis said, trying to hold back tears. “I need you to share this with the women in your life who may be as stubborn as I was about mammograms. And I need you to tell them that they have to do it. Early detection, especially for breast cancer, changes your outcome. It can save their life.”
“For me, it was important to come to you and admit where I went wrong with this, because it could help you or someone you know.
According to the CDC, Black women have a 40 percent higher chance of dying from breast cancer than their white counterparts. Still, Lewis is determined to defeat the illness. “For me, alternative is still the best way. I stand by that,” she said. “I believe in the power of my body. I believe in the intelligence of my body. I believe in my power, and I believe in the power of my God. And all of that is going to help me.”
