By Bridget Brink | Published in the Lansing State Journal

In 2025, nearly 10,000 Michigan women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Over the summer, following a routine mammogram, I learned that number would include me.

After a number of tests, my doctor diagnosed me with Stage 1 ER+ invasive carcinoma and recommended surgery, which was performed as an outpatient procedure in early October. Although it was news no one ever wants to hear, I’m so grateful that it was detected early, I have an amazing team of Michigan doctors, and the cancer was removed successfully.

Like so many who hear the words, “You have breast cancer,” the diagnosis came as a total surprise. My overall health is excellent, and I’ve always made it a priority. I have no family history of cancer and I do not carry the BRCA mutation. For 28 years as a U.S. Foreign Service officer, I held a Class 1 clearance, our highest. This allowed me to serve in the toughest environments including the past three years as the first female Ambassador in a war zone, as our Ambassador to Ukraine. There, my team and I sheltered almost every night in a bunker as Putin’s missiles and drones attacked overhead. Fighting cancer was literally the last thing on my mind.

But as with all cases of cancer, early detection is key to a positive outcome. And that’s only possible with access to good, affordable care, which I am so thankful to have. But too many women do not – and my experience only makes me more determined to fight for a better future for all of us, because it’s personal. I want to be around for my family, and I know all women feel exactly the same.

Just as I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I watched Republicans in Washington cut health coverage for 25,000 mid-Michiganders, gut funding to lifesaving cancer research - including here at Michigan State - and vote to make health care more expensive for everyone. Thousands of women will lose access to care, including regular mammograms. And for those like me, who need expensive follow-up testing and surgery, they will not have a positive outcome and be there for their families.

We all know health care coverage is too expensive – and too bureaucratic.

We need leaders willing to take on Washington, fight for real solutions, and deliver results. That means reinstating the Affordable Care Act tax credits and overturning the drastic cuts that are jacking up health care costs for all of us and causing millions to lose insurance, altogether. And we need to lead the world in lifesaving cancer research that is improving the diagnoses and outcomes for women every day.

And it also means holding the powerful, accountable -- taking on insurance and drug companies that make health care and prescription drugs so expensive.

Thanks to early detection, I beat cancer. But I didn’t do it alone: I am grateful to my amazing doctors, family, friends and community for their incredible support.

One in eight women will hear the words, “You have breast cancer,” in their lifetimes. As we commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness month, I share my story in hopes that you and your loved ones get your annual screening and join our fight for a future where every Michigander has access to quality, affordable health care so that every woman can say: I beat cancer.