Buddy Check 12: Grandma, Your Boobs Are In Heaven

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- I met Peggy Lyons just hours before she would have both breasts removed.

She was chuckling over some jokes one moment and choking up with tears the next. Who wouldn't feel a big mush of emotion?

Peggy is our newest Buddy Check 12 success story. It's a good thing she did a self exam, more on that in a second.

First, though, let's talk about her sense of humor.

She chose a double mastectomy because she doctors thought that would be her best option. So there she sat on the hospital bed staring at her gown. She peeked down inside, looked at her breasts one more time, and said, "Goodbye, ta ta's!"

Determined to be upbeat, she pledged to raise money for breast cancer research when she felt up to it. She's already ordered buttons which say, "Big or small, let's save them all!"

Peggy has every reason to feel cheerful.

Dr. Jefferson Edwards, her surgeon at Baptist South, says Peggy did an "excellent" job finding her cancer.

He says she has lobular carcinoma, which he calls an "insidious" type of cancer. That's because, he explains, it can look like regular breast tissue on a mammogram and disguise itself as normal.

So Peggy's self exam--her loyalty to Buddy Check 12--saved her life. Peggy found one lump; doctors then discovered she had two areas of malignancy.

Dr. Edwards says further surgery will be needed to restore Peggy's shape. "We'll come back and get it as close to what God had before? but without the breast cancer concerns," he says.

As for Peggy, she has words of wisdom for all of us women. Peggy says, "I get so emotional talking about it because there's so many people out there that don't do it. They don't check. Maybe mammograms are too expensive or inconvenient. They don't think about the check. That's why Buddy Check 12 is so important. I mean one minute out of your day can save your life."

Peggy's daughter was in tears looking at her mom getting ready for surgery. She said, "She's my best friend."

Dr. Edwards reassured the family. "Oh, she's going to do great," he said. And leave it to Peggy to keep up the high spirits. She emailed me a photo of her the day after her double mastectomy.

You can see her grandchildren, Haley and Daniel, sitting on the bed next to her.

In Peggy's words, "Haley wanted to see my bandages. I showed her and she proclaimed that my boobs were now with God in heaven." Peggy is proof that Buddy Check 12 works.

Are you checking every month? It's so easy. Look for any change in your breast, especially a hard lump.

Remember those mammograms, too.

We'll mail you a Buddy Check 12 kit for free. Just call our partner, Baptist Health, at 904-202-CARE.

In fact, we mail Buddy Check 12 kits all over the world.

Buddy Check 12 has saved more than 285 women from dying of breast cancer since Jeannie Blaylock first launched Buddy Check on TV 16 years ago.

You can watch First Coast News every 12th to see success stories about women in our own area.