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SANDY — Students at Jordan High School are helping to raise awareness about breast cancer on the last day of breast cancer awareness month.
Students were encouraged to wear pink to school instead of Halloween costumes as part of an event sponsored by the Future Health Professionals Club at Jordan High in conjunction with the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Students were asked to wear pink to show their commitment to fight for a cure.
Cancer survivor Morgan Watson, 17, of Herriman, spoke to the student body, encouraging students to educate themselves about cancer and to get tested if there is a history of breast cancer in their family. She said it is important for girls to recognize that breast cancer does not just affect older women.
"I'm just glad to be a part of it and spread information about the disease to young women and have them be aware that it can happen to them," Watson said.
Watson also spoke about living a healthy lifestyle, saying lifestyle choices can affect whether a person can get cancer.
Mine was an exceptionally rare case, but the more knowledge that you have the more you can prepare for things to happen in the future.
–Morgan Watson
"High school students tend to think more about their social lives — being the most important thing — but they don't really get involved with causes or things like that," Watson said. "Mine was an exceptionally rare case, but the more knowledge that you have the more you can prepare for things to happen in the future."
Watson was diagnosed with Medullary carcinoma at 15 years old in August of 2010, spending the next year going through surgeries and radiation to fight the cancer. Watson has been in remission since, educating women about breast cancer.
Medullary carcinoma is a rare type of mutation to the more common breast cancer, accounting for approximately 3-5 percent of all cases of breast cancer. Medullary carcinoma usually affects women in their late 40s and early 50s.
