Former UPP Hopeful Jermaine N. Edwards Reveals Breast Cancer Diagnosis

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Every year, as an advocate, I, Jermaine N. Edwards, have written, and highlighted efforts to ensure that we all remember this fight, that we are aware, alert, and paying attention.

But this October is different.

This time, it isn’t just my advocacy speaking.

It’s me.

It’s my body.

It’s my life.

This is my way of saying it: I have breast cancer.

Even typing those words makes my hands feel heavy. It is one of those truths you wrestle with. Do I disclose? How do I disclose? If I disclose, will I ever feel the same again? But silence felt heavier than the truth. So here I am, saying it, because shining a light on this disease matters. Because real lives, mine included, are on the line.

I have seen cancer’s devastation before. My mother is a survivor, and yet she fights again. I have stood beside her. I have prayed for her. I have held her hand through hospital visits. I thought I understood. But being the one in the battle, being the patient instead of the pillar, is different. It is a rollercoaster I never wanted to ride.

Cancer is never a battle fought by one person alone. When it enters your life, it enters the lives of everyone around you. It shakes the foundations of family. It unsettles the hearts of children, burdens the minds of partners, and tests the faith of loved ones who try to stay strong while silently breaking inside. It rearranges the rhythm of a household, shifts routines, and forces everyone into survival mode. Cancer does not strike one. It strikes all.

Some moments I feel fierce, ready to fight. Other moments I collapse inward, a quiet ache curling inside me, wanting to sit in a dark room, unseen, unheard. My emotions climb and plunge, from courage to tears, from hope to exhaustion. This disease is not just physical, it is spiritual, emotional, mental. It asks questions I cannot always answer. Why me? And in the same breath: Why them? Why any of us?

I have always been the strong one. The supporter. The giver. The sustainer. The one who holds others up. The pillar of rock. Accepting support does not come easily for me, it feels foreign, uncomfortable, even now. Vulnerability has never been my comfort zone. Yet cancer forces you to face yourself, to open your hands, and to let others hold you up the way you have held them.

This is my reality now. A personal battle wrapped inside a public fight.

I am not a pink girl. I have never been the ribbons-and-bows type. But I will fight this battle with my pink on, with my bows, and with my ribbon pinned to my chest. And I will also be carrying a very pink sledgehammer. Because I am not one to go down quietly. I am a fighter, and I intend to fight with everything in me.

So today, I ask you: learn self-examination. Do not be afraid to touch your own body, to know it, to feel when something has changed. If there is the slightest difference, the faintest lump, the smallest shift, do not stay silent. Sound the alarm. Seek the help you need immediately. Early detection is not just important, it is often the difference between life and death.

Get screened. Know your body. Protect yourself and protect your future. Support those in the battle. Stand with the survivors who fought through it. Help those fighting now with breast cancer and support those seeking a cure. Support the organizations working tirelessly to push this fight forward, because they need us as much as we need them.

And to every woman reading this, do not delay. Do not look away. Do not convince yourself that you are too busy, too young, or too healthy. Cancer does not wait. Neither should you. Look yourself in the mirror, look yourself in the eye, and take responsibility for your own life. Your tomorrow may depend on what you choose to do today.

This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I am not just raising awareness. I am standing inside the fire. I am speaking as a fighter.

I will fight.

I will hope.

I will not be silent.

Jermaine N. Edwards

Community Advocate. 

St. John’s Rural South.

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