At the age of 26, Monica Steward felt a lump in her breast. Claiming she was too young to have breast cancer, doctors misdiagnosed her for two years before she passed away in 1996.
Boarding for Breast Cancer (B4BC) came to Cal State University Long Beach on Wednesday to educate students about the early detection of breast cancer.
Founded in 1996, B4BC is a breast cancer organization that focuses on educating young people. The organization was created to honor Steward, the founders’ friend who passed away from breast cancer. By the time she was diagnosed, she had stage-four breast cancer.
“There’s a big misconception that it is a disease only for your mothers or grandmothers,” Blair Young, the outreach director for B4BC said.
The founders, Lisa Hudson, Kathleen Gasperini and pro-snowboarders Tina Basich and Shannon Dunn started the foundation a few months after Steward’s passing, according to the website. As a fundraiser, they held a music festival where the Beastie Boys played, Young said.
B4BC teams up with ESPN X Games every spring and winter to promote activity and to educate the boarding community about breast cancer. Because of their popularity in the sports community, Northface and Fugoo sponsor a college campus tour for B4BC every year for the past five years.
B4BC brought jelly breast molds to CSULB to simulate what cancerous lumps feel like. Young said that there have been several instances where young women come back to the organization to tell them they were able to catch breast cancer early because of the education they received from B4BC.
Jenn Drees, a freshman pre-nursing major said that she learned how to do a breast self-exam in high school. She said her aunt is a survivor of breast cancer and that her mother’s friend recently passed away from it.
“It’s a pretty relevant issue in my life,” Drees said. “It’s so important for people to be aware of how serious it is.”
Young said that it is important to educate both males and females because both sexes can be diagnosed with breast cancer. She also said that women’s male partners found nearly 30 percent of self-diagnoses.
“Knowing how to check for lumps may save not only your life, but someone else’s as well,” Young said.
Alejandro Diaz, a junior mechanical engineering student said he breast cancer is not really a big concern of his as a man.
“Early detection is important though, because it might prevent surgery or chemotherapy down the line,” Diaz said.
“It is so important to help young people understand that there are actions that they can take right now that will help reduce the risk, not only years down the line, but also reduce the risk of catching it early on in life,” Liza Tagliati, the marketing manager for B4BC, said.
B4BC was one of the organizations at the Associated Student, Inc. “This is Your City” event. Taylor Buhler-Scott, the activities coordinator said the event was a way for students to talk to different volunteer organizations in the local community.