Muralist Cristina Maya is sharing her story about breast cancer so that other women can take steps to prevent and detect the disease early.
"My mom never told us that we had to touch them," Maya said. "When I discovered that I had a lump in my breast, I went to the doctor, they checked me out, they did tests."
Maya had a history of breast cancer in her family: her paternal grandmother, whom she never met, died of the same disease.
A positive breast cancer diagnosis was also a tough battle for Gloria Muriel, an artist and mother of two daughters.
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"I began to feel very strong aches in my right breast," Muriel said. "They had already happened to me, like stabbing pains, but not so strong."
Her spirituality gave her strength to overcome the cancer.
"I got a lot of the strength from the spiritual things. Working with the spirit so that [the mind] is well, and the body is too," Muriel said.
Both artists collaborate with the Keep a Breast Foundation, which offers a bilingual app that tells people what they should do to prevent breast cancer.
"It teaches you how to do personal checkups with animated charts, how to set automatic reminders," says Shaney Jo Darden, founder of Keep a Breast. "There are resources on what to do at the doctor. It connects you with a doctor in case something abnormal is found."
The app shows a step-by-step self-test guide with animated gifs, and is also available in Mexico.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 264,000 cases of breast cancer in women and about 2,400 in men are diagnosed in the United States each year.
The CDC also notes that about 42,000 women and 500 men die from breast cancer each year.
That is why doctors recommend a monthly personal exam.
"With one in eight women being diagnosed with breast cancer, prevention and early detection may be the cure," says Darden.
People interested in downloading the app can do so through Google Play or the Apple store. The app is also available in Spanish.
This story originally appeared on our sister station, Telemundo 52. Para leer en español, haga clic aquí.
