When Lori Jurans was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was overcome with a feeling most people wouldn’t expect.
“I was grateful — for the ability to catch it early, to have health insurance that allowed me to do preventive screenings, to live in a city with good health care,” she says. “From every perspective, I felt nothing but gratitude. I thought to myself, ‘We can do this.’”
Lori has diligently participated in recommended screenings since her early 20s due to a strong family history of breast cancer. Her grandmother, mother, sister, first cousin and several distant cousins all had the disease.
At age 25 she started doing annual mammograms, along with regular MRIs, at her doctor’s recommendation. “That was something I could control,” says the director of Sales Strategy for Ecommerce and Renewables at GE Appliances.
Then in April of this year, a routine MRI revealed Lori had Stage 1 breast cancer.
Given both her mother and sister had faced advanced cancer diagnoses, Lori felt relief after learning the “suspicious scan” was Stage 1.
“I don’t want to minimize it, but I sat with my mom and sister in rooms where doctors said they hope to give them a chance,” she says. “They would have given anything to switch rooms with someone going through what I’m going through.”
‘It’s all about early detection’
Lori had just graduated college when her mother was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer, which eventually metastasized and progressed to Stage 4. She spent a year living in a hotel room in Texas while her mom received treatment at Arlington Cancer Institute.
Against all odds, aggressive treatment was successful, and her mom remains cancer-free today.
Lori’s sister faced a similar journey, beginning with a Stage 3 diagnosis in 2010. She, too, is in complete remission.
It was an incredibly difficult and uncertain road for both women, which has given Lori a unique perspective in facing her own diagnosis.
“When it comes to cancer, it’s all about early detection,” Lori says. “All your power lies in that.”
Because the cancer was caught early, chemotherapy wasn’t required. That was a relief to the 42-year-old mother of three, who recently underwent a double mastectomy with no complications.
Lori hopes sharing her story will encourage others to get recommended cancer screenings and empower them to take control of their health.
“We have the tools to fight breast cancer; we’ve got to use them,” she says. “You have to show up and own responsibility for your health. If you do those things, you can have peace about whatever happens. But you have to show up.”
Since her diagnosis, Lori has leaned on her faith and her belief that God “shows up” in many ways, every single day.
“God shows up in the science and the doctors who are treating me; in the love of my family; in working for a company like GE Appliances, where I’m lucky to have support, along with outstanding health insurance,” she says. “There are so many ways God shows up to take care of us. That being said, we have to do our part.”
November 5-6: Mammograms will be available for Appliance Park employees
- Mammograms help find cancer at an early stage, when the chances of survival are highest.
- Call 502-452-0777 to schedule an appointment.
- Use ON-THE-CLOCK Care to get an exam without clocking out.