October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Kassie Nelligan’s Story: A Five-Year Breast Cancer Journey

By MONICA CALZOLARI
ONEONTA

Katherine Nelligan, who goes by Kassie, discovered she had breast cancer five years ago.

“It was five days before my 35th birthday when I discovered a lump in my breast,” she recalled.

Nelligan has no history of cancer in her family. She is not sure why she got cancer. She is in remission now and gets annual mammograms.

She said, “The problem is that people are not getting checked until they are 40 years old and cancer is occurring at younger and younger ages.”

“It really caught us by surprise,” she added.