When it comes to self-examinations for breast health, Jennifer Parkerson says everyone should be doing it, no matter their gender.

“I tell everybody, even guys,” Parkerson said. “Put it on your calendar, whether it’s the first, the fifteenth, end of the month, beginning of the month, whatever. Just do it in the shower, selfcheck, because that’s how a majority of breast cancer gets found out.”

Parkerson was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer in October of 2022 at the age of 39. Doctors told her that it was rare to discover her form of cancer in a patient so young, she said.

It was self examinations, Parkerson said, that helped her find the lump in her left breast. However, because she had dealt with cysts in the past, she chalked it up to another cyst growing and put her breast health on the back burner.

“I kept watching it and I felt like it was growing, but, you know, as a mom, we always put ourselves last. I had a lot going on in my life and so I just kind of put if off and said, ‘Well, I’ll get it checked out.’ Well, God started knocking,” she said.

About six months later, she said a series of events led her to believe God was telling her it was time to make an appointment with her doctor. A week after a biopsy of the tissue, she received the diagnosis.

But the time before her diagnosis, Parkerson said, was the scariest time of her life.

“That first week and a half, I was waiting on the test results before I could get into the doctor was my weak point because I didn’t know. I mean, when you hear cancer, you think you’re gone. And I have four boys at home,” she said through tears. “I’m that game plan person. You give me a game plan, I can kick it. But the uncertainty is what just shook me.”

Parkerson went through four rounds of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas where they found two other forms of cancer in her right breast tissue.

After months of surgeries to stretch her muscles, she had another round of surgeries to build breasts from existing fat and tissues from her stomach. And she is now cancer-free.

“It was a long, long journey with multiple surgeries to get there, but you know, it’s gone and I don’t have anything to worry about,” she said.

She said it was her family – sons Colby, Jacob, Caleb and Jase, and her husband of 23-years Michael – and a close friend who was going through her own battle with breast cancer who helped her get through.

Parkerson said her friend talked her through the process and nearly held her hand during her treatments.

But her biggest takeaway is how she said God has used her and her story to help others like her friend helped her through.

“I just say I was in God’s hand through every bit of it from, you know, the diagnosis to getting me through it to, you know, using me now to help other women get through it,” Parkerson said.

“There’s at least five six women from their mid thirties to 60s right now that I’m talking through this and … just knowing that I could help the like she helped me. and give them the advice.”