Terry Crews’ Wife, Breast Cancer Survivor Rebecca, Tells SurvivorNet: “I Am Thankful To Be Alive” & Says Mammogram Saved Her Life

In an update on how she’s doing, Crews tells SurvivorNet, “I continue to be monitored by an oncologist and I'm still cancer-free. As a survivor, and one who is so because of early detection, I encourage women everywhere to get themselves tested regularly, because early detection saves lives.”

“As I am approaching the one-year anniversary of my breast cancer diagnosis, I am thankful to be alive.”

Now 55, her diagnosis came following a routine mammogram screening and ultrasound and she says “I believe [they] saved my life.”

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Mammogram Screenings

Breast cancer is typically detected via a mammogram screening, which looks for lumps in the breast and early signs of breast cancer. Dr. Connie Lehman, the Chief of Breast Imaging Division at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a previous interview, “If you haven’t gone through menopause yet, I think it’s very important that you have a mammogram every year. We know that cancers grow more rapidly in our younger patients, and having that annual mammogram can be lifesaving.”

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Dr Lehman says that mammogram frequency can decrease with age. “After menopause,” she said, “it may be perfectly acceptable to reduce that frequency to every two years. But what I’m most concerned about is the women who haven’t been in for a mammogram for two, three, or four years, those women that have never had a mammogram. We all agree regular screening mammography saves lives.”

When Should I Get a Mammogram?

Rebecca’s Breast Cancer Diagnosis

A breast cancer diagnosis, quite often, can put everything else going on in your life into perspective. Rebecca’s husband, Terry, said that when his wife was diagnosed, “I actually felt a mild panic attack. The only way I can describe it, I felt like my insides were melting, like no, no, no, no, no this can’t be. No. But Rebecca’s strength was so amazing.”

Related: Breast Cancer, An Overview

Terry says Rebecca called on him to be strong, because they needed to fight her cancer. He described her reaction, to his reaction, like this: “She was like, hey. I said, don’t look at me like that. Yeah, she did. She said, don’t look at me like that. And I was like, right, right. OK, and it shook me. It was almost like she grabbed me, like come on, man. Wake up, you know? And I just was like, yeah, yes, yes. And she was like, I’m ready to fight. And I knew I needed to be strong.”

Terry Crews' Reaction To Wife Rebecca's Breast Cancer Diagnosis: "I Felt Like My Insides Were Melting"

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