132: Cancer Doesn’t Care About COVID with Chaunte Lowe - a podcast by Dr. Donnica Moore

Chaunte Lowe is a four-time Olympian (2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016) high jumper. She won the Bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics. She’s the American recorder holder in the women’s high jump in indoors and outdoors. In 2018, she found a small lump in her breast at the age of 34. When the doctors told her everything was fine, she knew that something was still wrong. After a second opinion, she was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer. Her life was turned upside down when she underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy.

 

Her first instinct was to blame herself for something she thought she did wrong. Dr. Donnica talks about all of the things that can be out of our control. Her tumor was triple negative, which affects mostly African American women. Roughly 10% of people with breast cancer have triple-negative cancer, meaning that there’s less research for it. Chaunte also had the rude awakening that Black Women are more likely to die from a cancer diagnosis than White Women.

 

Chaunte Lowe is now partnering with Stand Up to Cancer to encourage people to go to the doctor and get regular examinations as well as listening to their bodies. She is dedicated to making more people aware of the risk of cancer and how getting an annual examination can save your life. So she trained for the 2020 Olympics throughout chemotherapy and her double mastectomy. While she was disappointed that the Olympics were postponed to 2021, she is finding the silver lining and getting inspired to train harder.

Further episodes of In the Ladies' Room with Dr. Donnica

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Website of Dr. Donnica Moore