Mental and Emotional Challenges of Breast Cancer as a Black Woman

Mental and Emotional Challenges of Breast Cancer as a Black Woman

“Are you sure?!” That was the question Sharon Gill’s husband kept asking the nurse who called to inform the couple about Sharon’s breast cancer diagnosis. American women have an overall 12% lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. And yet, like most women, Gill was surprised and mentally unprepared to hear the diagnosis — specifically 1A ER+ HER with no lymph node involvement — in November 2012. Though Black women are less likely to be diagnos…