Wanda Sykes' Breast Cancer Battle

While visiting The Ellen DeGeneres Show recently, funny lady Wanda Sykes revealed some news that she’s never shared publicly; she has had both breasts removed. This past February, after going to the doctor for breast reduction surgery, she found out that she had breast cancer and had to make the difficult decision to remove her breasts completely so that she could rid herself of the cancer.

“I had breast cancer. Yeah, I know it’s scary. I had real big boobs and I just got tired of knocking over stuff. Every time I eat — oh lord. I’d carry a Tide stick everywhere I go. My back was sore so it was time to have a reduction. It wasn’t until after the reduction that in the lab work, the pathology, that they found that I had DCIS [ductal carcinoma in situ] in my left breast. I was very, very lucky because DCIS is basically stage-zero cancer. So I was very lucky.”

“I had the choice of, [going] back every three months and getting it checked. Have a mammogram, MRI every three months just to see what it’s doing. But, I’m not good at keeping on top of stuff. I’m sure I’m overdue for an oil change and a teeth cleaning already.”

Wanda decided to have her breasts removed because her mother’s side of the family has a long history of cancer. The bilateral mastectomy seemed like the only logical choice for her.

“I had both breasts removed, because now I have zero chance of having breast cancer.[...]I was like, I don’t know, should I talk about it or what? How many things could I have? I’m black, then Lesbian. I can’t be the poster child for everything. At least with the LGBT issues we get a parade, we get a float, it’s a party. I was real hesitant about doing this, because I hate walking. I got a lot of [cancer] walks coming up.”

It’s great that she can help people laugh through such a serious issue, while also showing us how important it is for women to get checked up on a regular basis. If she didn’t go in for a breast reduction, she may not have been lucky enough to find out she had breast cancer while it was in it’s early stage. Awareness around the importance of mammograms for women is so important.