Cleveland, OH — CLEVELAND -- One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer.
The pink we see every October only tells part of Pamela Stinnett’s story.
To see the pain she held to get to this moment, you have to go back to 2016.
“When you go in and you hear them tell you have cancer, you're processing it,” Stinnett said.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer at 45 years old.
"I had two lymph nodes removed and a lumpectomy done. Your body is put through so much that you don't know how strong you are until you have to deal with something like that.”
Carla Daniel was diagnosed at 32 years old.
"I felt like I had already been given a death sentence, so what do I have to lose?” Daniel said.
She waited until after her daughter’s senior year in high school to have the surgery. She said she didn’t want to “ruin” her final year in school.
"You have panic attacks,” Daniel said. “You cry on the way to the doctor and these emotions come out of nowhere. It still chokes me up sometimes.”
Their stories are uniquely similar. Neither felt the lumps associated with breast cancer, and neither had an extensive family history of cancer.
After years of treatment, though, they joined the Survivors Club.
"They don't call it remission anymore,” Stinnett said. “I’m cancer free.”
So now, they’re both fulfilling a calling and responsibility to help save other lives.
"There's so many women who are like, 'I'm scared because I don't want to know,' but if you find out, there's a lot of us that have your back,” Stinnett said.
If you happen to have a family member diagnosed, Daniel said support is the best thing you can offer.
"I think if family could learn to just listen to the person that's going through, not to be opinionated but to just listen, it helps,” Daniel said.
It won’t look the same for everyone either, to get to a healthy future you have to handle what you feel right now.
“Sometimes your body gives you other clues, ask your doctor questions,” Daniel said.