R&B singer Shanice is opening up about her breast cancer journey. The “I Love Your Smile” artist, 51, was diagnosed with the disease this spring after nearly a decade of skipping her recommended mammograms.
“I just want to tell women how important it is to get your mammograms,” Shanice said on the Wednesday, Oct. 30, episode of Good Morning America adding, “If I would have gone sooner, I could have caught [my breast cancer] when it was just at stage zero.”
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The Grammy-nominated singer revealed that back in her 40s, she had a breast cancer scare when doctors located what they first thought was a cancerous lump in her breast. Further investigation determined the lump was a cyst that didn’t require further treatment, but Shanice revealed that the scare discouraged her from her annual screenings.
“Because of the fear that I had when they thought they saw something, I didn’t go for eight years,” said Shanice, who noted that because of her dense breast tissue, breast cancer can be more difficult to detect. However, in March, the musician felt a lump in her breast she couldn’t ignore, prompting her to schedule a mammogram.
That mammogram and a follow-up ultrasound led to Shanice’s breast cancer diagnosis. Doctors originally thought she had ductal carcinoma in situ, which the Mayo Clinic describes as when cancer cells are only found in the lining of the milk ducts but have not spread yet to other parts of the breast, but Shanice decided to undergo a double mastectomy.
In May, after undergoing her double mastectomy, doctors told the mother of two that they had located a Stage 1, one-centimeter tumor in her breast. “When I had my surgery and they told me I had cancer, I literally lost my smile,” Shanice said. “But I wanted to come on the show to encourage women that you have to keep smiling. I got my smile back.”
Shanice shared news of her surgery in September on Instagram, thanking her doctors and her support system for all their help and their prayers during that difficult time.
Shanice continued on GMA that she hopes women can learn to put their fear aside and get screened for breast cancer regularly. Women with an average risk of breast cancer are recommended to get a mammogram every two years from age 40 to 74, according to U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines.
“I just want to tell women out there, put that fear aside,” Shanice said. “If you get checked early, you can beat this thing. It’s not a death sentence. If you can get there early, you’ll live.”
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