WHO 13 NEWS – Buddy Check 13 is a campaign that WHO 13 started a year ago. A monthly reminder to call your friend, do a self-breast exam, and schedule your annual mammogram.

This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, one viewer is grateful for the lifesaving reminder.

It’s a call to action to everyone.

“It’s something that I never, ever would have imagined. Can’t happen to me,” Casey Sigler, of Ankeny, said. 

Because cancer can happen to anyone. The Iowa Cancer Registry estimates breast cancer will happen to nearly 3,000 Iowans this year.

“That public service announcement, it seems so silly to say, it saved my life,” Sigler said.

Sigler saw the announcement just weeks after her 41st birthday, and followed the advice.

“And I was just lying in bed and put my right arm up,” Sigler recalled. “My right breast was fine, put my left arm up and something was there that shouldn’t be there.”

A mammogram in May brought answers.

“I’m diagnosed at, you know, Stage 2A,” Sigler said. 

Confirmed the lump Sigler felt was breast cancer.

“It’s not in my lymph nodes. It hasn’t spread. It is completely curable. I can fix this,” Sigler said. 

She started chemo in June.

“But if I had waited any longer, if I hadn’t seen that Buddy Check, it could be very different,” Sigler said. “And that’s terrifying.” 

Terrifying for her, and the three daughters depending on her.

Doctors say early detection is a difference maker.

“It’s been shown that stages 1 and 2 have almost 100% survival rate by catching breast cancer that’s localized to the breast,” Dr. Brian Wynia, diagnostic radiologist and breast imaging specialist at Iowa Radiology, said. “So if we check it early, that’s why this Buddy Check program is so important and vital just to take control of your own health.”

Recommendations say annual mammograms should start at age 40, but even earlier if you’re at an increased risk. Some of those factors include age, gender, family history, genetics, lifestyle choices, and dense breast tissue.

“We’re trying to use the compression to parse that tissue out so we can see those maybe small masses or things that are changing from year to year,” Dr. Wynia explained at a mammogram machine, “which is why it’s so vital to have mammograms every year so we can look at those interval changes.”

Changes that can show up in imaging or for women like Sigler, during a self-breast exam.

“This is the reason that we make promotions like these. This is the reason that we have such an awareness around this month, but also going forward,” Dr, Wynia said. “And that’s just a great example of really just being cognizant of your health and knowing what the normal is and not being afraid.”

A brave survivor with important reminders. 

“Don’t put things like this off. Check everything…” Sigler said. “Early detection is what’s going to save your life. Don’t wait.”

Sigler said she will be done with chemo next month and then will schedule her surgery.

If you’d like to learn more about scheduling a mammogram or calculating your breast cancer risk, click here.