Lung Cancer Research Foundation

Most people are excited to plan their 50th birthday. But here I was, about to turn 50, and I was getting more and more stressed. It was throwing me for a loop and, when I started to really listen to myself, I realized it was because I lost my mom to lung cancer in her fifties—she died at 53. She was the first person I knew who had cancer, and passed away shortly after she was diagnosed, within 10 months. That's where my head was at during this period: a dark place, thinking this could be my last decade. 

At the same time, I kept seeing these public service announcements everywhere in New York recommending a new lung cancer screening test. I distinctly remember one—I was in a cab on Park Avenue and 23rd Street, looked across the street and saw the PSA on a bus stop. In that moment, I thought to myself, I need to talk to my doctor. And that's what I did. 

My doctor told me the screening wasn't new—it was a low-grade CT scan they were just promoting as new. I told her I wanted it. She hemmed and hawed and noted that, even though my mom had lung cancer, it wasn't proven as genetic. I wasn't a smoker, too. I kept pushing. Finally, she okayed my getting a chest X-ray so we had a baseline. I told her, whatever the results, I still wanted the CT scan. She was fine with that. 

And do you know what? An hour later she called me. Something was showing in my scan. Honestly, I think it was my mom sending me a sign.