Why one North Carolina woman says a mammogram changed her life in more ways than one

By Erin Burnett

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    WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (WXII) — Darrolyn Sharp says one mammogram shaped her life for the better.

In 2020, Sharp says God told her and her husband to pack up their home in Indiana and move to Winston-Salem, sight unseen.

“So moving a home that we had lived in for the last 30 years and packing that up and bring our home across country – I didn’t think of anything. If you don’t feel anything and you don’t see anything, then you don’t think there’s a problem,” she said.

Sharp said she usually gets her mammograms every year. But with the move, she got distracted.

She says they knew no one in Winston, and like many who moved to a new city, they had to build a new community from scratch.

But after a car accident, this new community included a team of doctors. Her new primary care physician at Novant Health urged her to get back on track with her annual screenings.

“It was time for me to take my mammogram. And I took it, went back to Indiana. It was a holiday, December I’ll never forget. And then I get the phone call that we need to meet, because they found something on my mammogram.”

Doctors found two lumps: One was 7 centimeters and another was 3 centimeters.

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Sharp’s doctors decided to perform a mastectomy. Going through her cancer journey in a new city, she says people were worried that she had no community.

But she says she found support in her diagnosis with the help of support groups like the YMCA’s LiveStrong Program.

“They literally held my hand and took me every step of the way. Not knowing what to expect. Not knowing what the outcome was going to be. But I just had some assurance that everything was going to be OK,” she said.

She says a community like this helped her reframe her perspective on her diagnosis and find the lessons in the experience.

“I got a chance to be in that special circle, the pink ribbon circle… that only a few of us get to be in,” she said.

Now, Sharp says she is blessed to be cancer-free. She gives back to the LiveStrong program as an “alumna,” helping to support other people living through the disease.

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She says that regardless of age or gender, she urges others to listen to their bodies and get their mammograms.

“We must do the proactive, we must do the necessary, we must take care of ourselves,” she said.

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