JMy name is Fanny Arnaud. In 2020, I was affected by invasive breast cancer diagnosed during my pregnancy. I was 36 years old, had no family history and I did not identify with the risk factors cited in prevention campaigns (tobacco, alcohol, being overweight, sedentary lifestyle). According to the National Cancer Institute, these factors are the cause of a third of “avoidable” breast cancers each year in France. So why me? How can we explain cancers that develop without apparent cause?
My name is Sandra Bogojevic. I was 24 when I was diagnosed with my first breast cancer. Naturally at this age, with no history and a healthy lifestyle, the question “why me?” » quickly arose, especially when this cancer returned two years ago.
My name is Justine Rojas. My breast cancer declared at the age of 26 has a genetic origin. I joined the association Young & Pink to find support from young women who are going through the same thing as me. I run prevention workshops in high schools and I feel useful. However, what should we say when teenagers ask us: “If I don’t have a genetic mutation, if I don’t drink, if I don’t smoke and if I play sports, I won’t get cancer? is sure? »
There are 972 women who were affected by breast cancer before the age of 50, at an age when it is not “normal” to become ill. We want to go beyond the still very individualizing discourse in terms of prevention and we call on looking at the problem at the environmental level.
France, world champion in breast cancer
Breast cancer is not a pretty pink disease. It is a fatal disease that does not care about age. Nearly 67,000 French women were diagnosed in 2022: 15,000 died, including 1,100 women under 50. 15,000 deaths in one year, that’s 41 per day… Who talks about it in the media? Who shows the survivors, these women whose daily life behind the pink ribbon rhymes with physical and psychological after-effects of treatment, fear of recurrence, infertility, abandoned projects, divorces?
We speak on behalf of all these women who are not shown. France has become the world champion in breast cancer. The incidence rate (all ages combined) is 105.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in France in 2022, compared to 95.9 cases in the United States or 87.0 cases in Italy. The number of new cases of breast cancer has more than doubled in our country since the 1990s – as have all cancers, in fact.
You have 62.6% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
