Shanice reveals she was diagnosed with breast cancer after avoiding mammograms for 8 years
"When I had my surgery and they told me I had cancer, I literally lost my smile," the R&B singer said.
Shanice was put off by mammograms after doctors wrongly thought they had found cancer in her breasts. For eight years, she decided against having the recommended annual screening.
But when the "I Love Your Smile" singer finally returned to the doctor, she received an actual cancer diagnosis.
"I just want to tell women how important it is to get your mammograms," Shanice, 51, said Wednesday on Good Morning America. "If I would have gone sooner, I could have caught [it] when it was just at stage zero."
Initially, doctors thought she had an early form of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which is a non-invasive, stage zero cancer that affects the milk ducts. The singer opted have a double mastectomy in May, but during the procedure, her medical team discovered a stage 1 tumor.
Michael Bezjian/Getty
Shanice is recovering from a health scare"When I had my surgery and they told me I had cancer, I literally lost my smile," Shanice said. "But I wanted to come on the show to encourage women that you have to keep smiling. I got my smile back."
Shanice first told her fans about the double mastectomy in September, breaking the news that she had undergone surgery three months before.
"This is the hardest thing I've ever had to face in my life," she said in the below video taken at the hospital, "but I know God is with me and everything is gonna go well."
"Thank God I caught it early," she wrote in the caption. "I wasn't ready to talk about it then but I'm strong enough to talk about it now.. Please everyone get checked." She added then that she was "healed and restored in Jesus name."
The Grammy-nominated musician scored several chart hits in the '90s, including "Saving Forever for You" and "When I Close My Eyes." Shanice and her husband, actor Flex Alexander, also starred in the reality TV series Flex & Shanice, which aired for three seasons (from 2014 to 2016) on OWN. She continues to release new music.
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