Survivor Jessica Duemig Warns That Breast Cancer Is A Concern For Women Of All Ages
Early Detection BY M. DENNIS TAYLOR
Jessica Duemig was 32 years old when she discovered a lump that turned out to be breast cancer — eight years before she was due for her first mammogram. Since then, she has written a book about her experience and become an advocate for early detection of this dreaded disease. Early one morning, Duemig was getting ready for work as an account services representative for an international advertising agency. Career-driven, she worked as a sports marketing expert rising the ranks in a high-pressure industry, when she noticed a sharp pain on her left side, right where the ribcage starts to curve. “I thought it was a pimple that didn’t have a head on it, and I didn’t think any more about it, explained Duemig, a Wellington High School graduate. The pimple-like spot went away, but it returned with a vengeance two months later. “One morning, it was back. It hurt, and it was four times the size it had been… The size of a big gumball,” recalled Duemig, who didn’t yet know that her career, in fact, her whole life, had suddenly hit a pink wall. The bad news: stage two triple negative metaplastic breast cancer — and Duemig said that she can’t stress this enough, it was eight years before she thought she even had to begin worrying about breast cancer. 54
october 2020 | wellington the magazine