After facing backlash for refusing a double mastectomy, Ananda Lewis discussed the importance of early detection and allowing people their agency.
Ananda Lewis knows people are questioning her judgment after it was revealed she opted to keep her tumor following a stage III breast cancer diagnosis — which has since spread and elevated to stage IV cancer. The former MTV VJ just wants everyone to take away the right message from her story.
Following a Breast Cancer Awareness Month roundtable discussion with CNN’s Stephanie Elam and CNN anchor Sara Sidner, where Lewis, 51, shared she declined to have her tumor removed through surgery to instead attempt homeopathic methods, she has received an onslaught of backlash.
During an appearance on a recent episode of “Soulibration” on Blackdoctor.org, she admitted that if she heard her same story, “I would think some crazy mess, too.”
With a laugh, she added, “Like, that just sounds crazy.”
Lewis clarified she was elevated to stage IV last October and was very ill at that time. Today, after much trial and error and a combination of conventional and integrative treatment methods, she’s doing “fantastic.” She understands when discussing cancer, words like “stage IV” or “cancer spreads” could sound scary.
However, she said, “A lot of the words, although we get really attached to them, are meaningless.”
She explained that the various stages have nuances and emphasized that cancer can affect people differently. Considering that fact, she noted, “We have to be more open to people making choices that work for them and being OK with it.”
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Online detractors weren’t the only ones who have voiced concerns about Lewis’ decisions.
“I did make choices that I knew people were going to disagree with — people closest to me in my life disagreed with them when I was making them,” she shared.
She continued, “It might have been a mistake for me not to have surgery. I don’t know. I’m not going to go back. Where I’m at now I’m fine with, and so whatever mistakes I’ve made, I’m in a great place.”
“We all got to make our own choices,” she said, adding, “I’m living with the consequences of mine.”
Despite the backlash she’s received since her original comments kicked off a firestorm online, Lewis is “grateful” for the moment.
“I’m grateful that it’s opened up some really necessary and difficult conversations that a lot of people don’t want to have,” the former BET “Teen Summit” host continued. “I’m here for it.”
Some of those difficult conversations include her admitting the number one mistake she agrees having made.
“My biggest mistake is the one I’ve shared from the beginning: not getting my mammograms,” she explained.
While she’s still “on the fence” about mammograms due to watching their ineffectiveness in detecting her mother’s breast cancer, Lewis acknowledged there are other early detection methods she could have sought out, including 3D ultrasound. She also said if she had been doing much of what she’s doing now to maintain her health ten years ago, she may not be here.
“And that’s really what I want people to take away from this,” she continued. “Really, how do you protect yourself from this?”
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