Asians in the United States are six times more likely to get breast cancer than women in Asia, stresses Hedy Tripp, an 18-year Asian American breast cancer survivor.
That’s why it really upsets her when she hears people say that Asians don’t get breast cancer.
She knows first hand that Asian Americans do and wonders if the American diet is to blame.
In a column for the SC Times, Tripp wrote:
As an immigrant, did my exposure to Western diets (pizza and fast foods) and environmental and social changes cause my breast cancer? If these changes affected me, then our newest Southeast Asian immigrants and refugees are facing even more serious challenges, including racism, daily discrimination, poverty, cultural incompetence of some health professionals, language barriers, the struggle to get health insurance and the extraordinary trauma resulting from their experiences of war.
Tripp recently attended the Finish the Fight conference put on by the American Cancer Society at St Cloud State University in Minnesota and was appalled about the lack of diversity on the panels.
She criticized the lack of outreach to women of color and said the whole community bears that responsibility.
Recently the National Asian Breast Cancer Initiative was launched to counter the perception that Asian Americans don’t get breast cancer.
Their campaign titled Asian women don’t get breast cancer is in honor of breast cancer activist Susan Shinagawa.
Shinagawa noticed a lump in her breast, but two doctors at first refused to give her a biopsy because they said Asians don’t get breast cancer.
But Shinagawa insisted and her instincts were confirmed.
You can find out more about Susan’s story and the breast cancer initiative in the Digital Journal.
