YORK, Pa. — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and a local mother of two is sharing her battle with an aggressive form of it, in the hopes of educating others.
Ashley Leiss and her family have been waiting to ring the bell since Feb. 2021 when she noticed swelling in her arm.
"Fast forward to about March/April, the swelling was getting worse and then I noticed a red rash on my right breast," Leiss said. "I remember Googling it and it came up immediately and I just knew. I remember calling my husband and I was like, 'I have inflammatory breast cancer.'"
Doctors weren't as convinced, telling the 35-year-old mother of twin girls that she was too young.
"With inflammatory breast cancer, it almost looks like a net inside the breast, so when they do imaging, it's very hard to see because it's not really a lump," Leiss said." In fact, it really goes misdiagnosed much of the time because there is no lump."
But she was right. After a mammogram, ultrasound, and MRI, she was diagnosed with stage three inflammatory breast cancer, on her daughters' 7th birthdays.
One week later, she was in Boston starting cancer treatment at one of only three inflammatory breast cancer clinics in the entire country.
"I had 20 rounds of chemo, 39 rounds of radiation, a single mastectomy, and I'm still receiving immunotherapy every three weeks for probably at least two more years," Leiss said.
It wasn't an easy journey for the young mom, who openly talked about the difficulties surrounding mental health.
"To not look like yourself, that was one of the hardest parts," she said. "Looking in the mirror and seeing this girl and you're like, 'where did she go?'"
"I would never want my cancer again but I would never take back the experience because life is just so much more simple now," she went on. "The only thing that matters is your family and and sitting around with your husband and kids and hugging your parents."
Leiss says she encourages women to keep an eye on their body and to be your own advocate if you think something is wrong.
For more information about the treatment center where Ashley went in Boston, click here.
For more information about inflammatory breast cancer, click here.