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Brittney Beadle, from Taylor, missed her senior prom because she had a double mastectomy. When she first found a lump on her right breast, in February, a breast specialist at Moses Taylor Hospital, in Scranton, assured the then high school senior a biopsy would be unnecessary.

“She told me 18-year-olds don’t get breast cancer,” Beadle said.

In the fight for her life, she’s sharing a message: Breast cancer doesn’t discriminate against age.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are or how young you are. You can get breast cancer at any age,” Beadle said.

She admits she was shocked when she found a lump sticking out of her right breast. Being told it must be “some kind of fibrosis” because of her age, Beadle carried on enjoying her last year of school at Riverside High School, thinking about college and the possibility of studying to be a veterinarian.

“But the lump kept getting bigger,” Beadle said.

By May, she returned to the doctor, to discover she wasn’t too young to have breast cancer.

“I was in total shock,” Beadle said. “I was zoning out.”

Beadle said she gave herself one day to feel sad about her diagnosis. She decided to be a fighter instead of feeling sorry for herself.

Unfortunately, Beadle’s news got worse.

“At first they thought it was stage II,” Beadle said of her diagnosis. “A month later, we found out it spread to my bones, my lymph nodes and liver.”

She also learned she had stage IV cancer.

Again, she gave herself one day to feel sad.

She was ready to fight. And that’s what she did. She fought.

She underwent Chemotherapy and changed her lifestyle by adopting a vegetarian diet and practicing yoga and meditation, which she said allowed her to be physically and emotionally prepared to handle treatment.

Beadle said she was thrilled when she was told her stage IV cancer is in remission on Sept. 30. Now, she wants women, and men, of all ages to realize breast cancer doesn’t discriminate.

“If you find something, don’t be scared,” she said. “Early detection is everything. I’m the perfect example of that.”

Beadle is also an example that there’s hope.

Brittney Beadle was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer when she was just 18 years old. Beadle found out on Sept. 30 that her cancer is now in remission.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_beadle.jpg.optimal.jpgBrittney Beadle was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer when she was just 18 years old. Beadle found out on Sept. 30 that her cancer is now in remission.

By Justin Adam Brown

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Reach Justin Adam Brown at 570-991-6652 or on Twitter @TLArts