Long Island mom Erica Ferrara beats breast cancer in uplifting video
FARMINGVILLE, N.Y. -- A Long Island mom beat breast cancer with a smile on her face, counting down her chemotherapy journey in an uplifting video.
Now, Erica Ferrara is sharing her lifesaving message with other young women, CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported Thursday.
Ferrara, a working mom in Farmingville, marked one year since finishing treatment. The diagnosis blindsided her following a mammogram she put off.
"I had a lump. I would have never felt it," said Ferrara, 41. "The mammogram pretty much saved my life. If I waited a year, God knows what would have happened. I already was at Stage 2."
A cancer diagnosis is difficult for anyone. But it was especially frightening for this young mom: triple-negative breast cancer, a nonhormonal and more aggressive form.
"You think about your kids. You don't want them to grow up without their mom," said Ferrara.
And yet, Ferrara stared down fear with humor, counting down 16 chemo sessions with a happy dance. Her sister chronicled the journey.
"I think the positivity really got me through everything," said Ferrara. "What was I going to do? Cry?"
"She would light up the treatment room when she came in," said Alison Raniere, a nurse at Northwell Health Cancer Institute Huntington. "Inspirational to anyone going through it."
Ferrara is back at Northwell Health Cancer Institute in Huntington channeling that positivity into helping others.
"Get your mammogram. Doesn't matter if it doesn't run in your family. If you don't feel anything, you still go yearly," she said. "If I can help one person, I know my journey was worth it."
Ferrara's doctor said there is good reason for her smiles.
"If a mammogram happens to find a breast cancer and it's at a very early stage, the treatments are easier and the outcomes are much better," said Dr. Joyce Au, a breast surgeon at Northwell Health Cancer Institute.
Breast cancer is on the rise in young women.
"I certainly have seen patients in their 20s and 30s," said Au. "Maybe they should start imaging earlier. Maybe they should get genetic testing."
Dancing her way through chemo and surgery, Ferrara now celebrates being cancer free. The chemo completely destroyed her tumor and she has no evidence of disease.
