Meet Gamze

Hello, I am Gamze (gum-zay). I was 13 and my mother was 38 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Due to my high-risk family history, I started having mammograms in my early 30s. At the age of 38, exactly after six months from my last mammogram, I felt pain on my left side and started self-examination. It was after a few hours that I finally felt the lump. Now, it was after 5 pm on a Friday and I had to wait two very long days until I could call my doctor’s office. He ordered ultrasounds to be done right after the examination. The ultrasound nurse left the room and came back (after what felt like days later) to say that the radiologist wanted to talk to me. That didn’t sound like everything was going to be okay. We walked down the long hallway together. I wanted to turn around, my feet were heavy, I didn’t want to hear what was going to be said to me. That was the very first one of my many walks down hospital hallways during my cancer journey.