When Reina Honts told her doctor she wanted to be screened for lung cancer, that doctor thought Honts “was a bit insane.” Honts had no symptoms and was young, so she didn’t fit the standard lung cancer profile.
Now, Honts is glad she didn't take "no" for an answer.
Read MoreHonts beat the disease, and now, she is a vocal lung cancer advocate, serving as the chair of the Lung Cancer Research Foundation. "I feel like somehow it’s come full circle from my mom’s diagnosis to mine, to what I do today," she said.
In addition to being a mother, Honts spends her days raising money for lung cancer research. "It's really challenging trying to raise funds for lung cancer research because of the stigma," she told SurvivorNet. "I think people assume that you have brought lung cancer on by not taking care of your lungs, but there's many ways for people to get lung cancer.”
"I think most people do not know that lung cancer is the number one cancer killer for both men and women combined,” Honts said.
Honts thinks that the only way to fight the stigma associated with lung cancer "is to get out there and talk about it openly." Above all, she wants people who have lung cancer and people who have an elevated risk of developing lung cancer to take the initiative to get ahead of the problem.
"You have the power to change your future," she says.
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