Breaking The Silence Around Breast Cancer In the African Community

According to cancer specialists at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, D.C’s Ward 5 has the city’s highest breast cancer mortality rate in 2014. Black women also comprised 40 percent of patients with advanced-stage breast cancer. Nationally, Black women are 41 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than white women according to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.For immigrants, the devastation of the disease is often worsened by a lack of insurance that makes it almost impossible to receive treatment. In addition, rates that illustrate continental African women’s breast cancer are often collated with those of Black American women, which can make it difficult to find specific statistics.Ify Nwabukwu remembers her mother, a Nigerian immigrant, learning she had breast cancer after going to the doctor for a routine check-up.“She didn’t have insurance so there was no way for me to find coverage,” said Nwabukwu. “However, I had a best friend who was a trauma surgeon, so she came together with her peers and they did [my mother’s] mastectomy pro bono- with no charges.”