Pink Courage: Chrissy Saffan

KNWA's Neile Jones introduces us to a young lady diagnosed with breast cancer in her twenties.

At just 26-years-old, Chrissy Saffan found a lump in one of her breasts. "The radiologist came back, didn't look like cancer, but needed to get a biopsy. And the surgeon came back doesn't look like cancer, but we'll send it to the labs and a week later it was cancer."

But at the time she was preparing for another life changing event. "We had just gotten engaged and we were getting married in a few months. And I knew I was going to be bald at my wedding. So I didn't want to undergo the mastectomy before the wedding."

Knowing she was fighting for her life, Saffan started her treatment ASAP and walked down the aisle, wearing a wig. She later opted for a bilateral mastectomy.

Saffan had watched her mother fight a similar battle, but says things were much different for her years later.

"My mom was diagnosed 16 years before I was or maybe 20 years before I was. And the treatment she went through was completely different then what i did. I wasn't sick from my chemo. If I was, then I talked to my doctors and they had something to help me. My mom didn't have that. She was really sick when she went through treatment and unfortunately she did not survive."

Aware of the difference time, technology and research can make, Saffan was led to share Her story.

Her husband Josh says simple early detection is the key to saving lives. "10 years later here we are living a great life. And you know it used to be a death sentence and it's no longer that ."

Part of why both say it's so important to support groups like the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Foundation.

Saffan says, "I look at my children, if I'm genetically predisposed to cancer then they probably are too. I don't want them to have to go through what I did. I want there to be a cure or at least better treatments.