CHARLOTTE, N.C. — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. There are currently more than 3.8 million breast cancer survivors in the United States.
WCNC Charlotte spoke with one of them: A CMS teacher who said early detection saved her life. She’s now using her story to encourage other women to do self-examinations and set mammogram appointments.
When Stevie Roper turned 40 in 2022, she went to get her first mammogram.
"I got a call back." Roper, a multi-classroom leader at Paw Creek Elementary School, said. "They said that I had something that just looked suspicious."
That call changed her life. Roper said she checked herself and felt a lump.
"When I went in there, I said, 'This is probably what you had caught. This what I felt,'" she said. "They were like, 'Oh no, it's not the same place.'"
After running tests, doctors told her it was a rare and aggressive tumor. They at first told her it wasn't cancerous, but it turned out they were wrong.
"When I got it taken out, they ending up checking it again," Roper said. "They found that it was cancerous."
As an educator, Roper feels called to educate other women about the importance of getting checked.
"So many more people are getting cancer," she said. "Especially for women, it's very important to really check because it's happening younger and younger."
Roper said she might not have gotten treatment in time, if she hadn't done that that self-examination.
"If I didn't find it, they may not have found it," she said.
During her two months of radiation treatment, she said Paw Creek was super supportive.
Looking back, one thing Roper wants to tell other women is that anyone can get cancer.
"Cancer was never in my vocabulary," she said. "My parent's never had it. Nobody in my generation of family members had ever had cancer."
But Roper said detecting it early can make all the difference.
"It can happen to you," Roper said. "And there's a really good chance that it will happen to you. But you have to find it early to really help."