In 1993 my sister died in a Florida hospital. She would have turned 58 that year. Originally diagnosed with breast cancer in the mid 1980s, she was such a determined fighter that she survived more than five years longer before eventually losing the battle. I had just turned 51and believe me, I’ve been diligent in yearly breast exams and mammograms ever since.

But did you know there is more than one type of breast cancer? Maybe like me you approach the yearly exam time with mixed feelings of I really don’t want to know but if it’s there then I guess it’s best I do know so I guess I have no choice but to go get the mammogram and wait nervously for the next two weeks because I know how good it makes me feel when and if, and so far it’s been when , I get the little card that says “the results of your mammogram were normal.” But the second type of breast cancer, the one you rarely hear anything about, doesn’t announce itself as a lump you happen to find during a self-breast-exam or even a mammogram. We should all know what it looks like–and what we should watch out for.

Yesterday I received an email with a link to a video of a news broadcast by a television station in Seattle. It was so informative with what turned out to be a very important message, I decided to preempt the blog I had planned for today and provide this youtube video version of that broadcast. I know that six minutes is a little long for spending on one blog post, but believe me it will be time well spent for information that could prevent you or someone you know from lamenting some time in the future, God forbid, “I didn’t know!” PLEASE watch it, and make sure every woman you know gets the message too. (The last minute or so is a fund-raising phone campaign by the station that is irrelevant to this message so you can stop at around 5 minutes.) To be forewarned is to be forearmed. And thanks, Bobbie in California, for caring!