Breast cancer awareness

My name is Taly Ann Anderson, and I would like to know if you can print it in the paper each 12th of the month about women doing monthly self-exams and mammograms. This is very important to me because in December 1998 I lost my mother to breast cancer. As I watched her grow worse and worse everyday, I thought to myself, "I don't want another woman going through this and the family of these women watching these women watching someone they love die and suffer as my mother did." I can't express how important this is. Early detection is the best hope.

I know that October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but we need to be reminded of the importance of these steps.

My mother was a strong and courageous woman, as all women who have this are. I know how important it is because my mother died from it and my grandmother and aunts all had breast cancer.

I live in a boarding home here in Cape Girardeau, and there is a woman here who is a 20-year survivor of breast cancer. She is an inspiration to me. We need to let women know that breast cancer doesn't have to be a death sentence.

TALY ANDERSON, Cape Girardeau