Ananda Lewis, the beloved former host of BET’s Teen Summit and MTV’s TRL, revealed that she is battling Stage 3 breast cancer. In a powerful video posted to her Instagram, the 47-year-old said, “I am sharing this with you today because it is the beginning of Breast Cancer Awareness month and I have been fighting to get cancer out of my body for almost two years.”

She continued, “What I didn’t understand, and what I need you to understand, the reason why I’m here telling you my business, is because I would have had three or four mammograms by the time they caught it. Instead, I’ve had to have 2 PET [positron emission tomography] scans so far. Guess how many mammograms worth of radiation a PET scan is. Anyone? 30! 30! So 60 mammograms! You do the math.”
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Lewis also added,  “If I had done the mammograms from the time they were recommended when I turned 40, they would’ve caught the tumor in my breast years before I caught it through my own self exam and thermography. And 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. Instead, what I’m dealing with is stage 3 breast cancer that is in my lymphs. I need you to get your mammograms.”
Lewis revealed she didn’t get mammograms even after seeing her mother go through testing for 30 years.
See the post below:

According to a recent report from NBC News, Black women are 40 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than white women. A recent study from the American Cancer Society  links the high rate of breast cancer amongst Black women to a lack of insurance. According to Annals of Internal Medicine, less than 8 percent of Black Americans participate in clinical trials.