The municipal and metropolitan councilor of Montpellier wants to raise awareness about this disease which also affects men and so that prevention is not only intended for women.
It took him years to talk about it, but now he is brandishing this experience as a standard to help save lives. Mikel Séblin, municipal and metropolitan councilor in Montpellier, had surgery on both breasts after the discovery of cancer cells.
Since then, he has continued to work to raise awareness among men – and women – about screening. “Check if there are lumps or discharge, in men this is also valid.” Even if for him, the discovery is a bit due to chance, he preaches prevention. “It’s important to talk about it.”
Five operations
“I had prominent breasts and like many men, it was very self-conscious.” He later learned that it was gynecomastia, a disease that causes an excess of mammary glands. He decides to have an operation to reduce this mass which he finds unsightly. But when this extra fat was removed, cancer cells were discovered in both breasts. “I was 35 years old and I had a precancer: small crab eggs with a risk of it degenerating so I didn’t hesitate.”
The only problem is that the operation did not allow for a nice reconstruction. He will pass the pool five times in total between the removal of the mass of fat, the removal of the breasts to remove the cancer cells and the reconstruction and the two revisions. These last three will be an “aesthetic” failure. “When we recreated the nipple, it didn’t work. But in my misfortune, I was lucky enough not to have needed chemo.”
Just one cancer
The elected official therefore specifies: “Breast cancer also concerns men even if there are fewer of them.” Especially since men can be ashamed of having a cancer that is known to be a woman’s cancer. “Breast cancer is just one cancer, in both women and men.“Some patients may feel excluded. Not to mention those who do not dare to talk about screening with their doctor for fear that it will taint their virility.
