Father And Daughter Have Breast Cancer

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Being a man and suffering from breast cancer is unusual in itself, but having this disease in the company of a daughter is even more unusual. That is the case of a New Jersey man named Arnaldo Silva, 67.

As reported by People, in 2007, Silva learned that she had stage 2 breast cancer, after feeling a lump under her right nipple while showering. After her diagnosis, she learned that she had a genetic mutation that increased the chance of breast cancer. That being the case, she urged each of her children to be tested.

Vanessa, now 42, and her younger brother Arnaldo III, 38, both tested positive for the gene, and for Vanessa, there was more bad news: A mammogram in May 2007 revealed that she also had breast cancer.

"Essentially, my father saved my life," he says, "because after opting for a bilateral mastectomy, they discovered it was worse than they thought." He was very aggressive, and if it wasn't for my father's diagnosis, he might not be here today."

Thanks to a timely diagnosis, both father and daughter sought treatment together, supporting each other in each phase of the treatment of this disease: Before and after surgery to remove their breasts, during chemotherapy, in the process of losing all the hair …

"As a man, it's the last thing you expect to hear when you go to the doctor," says Arnaldo, who works as a firefighter, "but I'm proof that this happens." "This year alone, 3,000 men will be diagnosed and 400 will die, which I consider unacceptable."