four members of the family, over 3 generations, diagnosed with breast melanoma - wtvr.com

Please enable Javascript to monitor this video

RICHMOND, Va. -- Breast cancer is a prognosis that may devastate any household, however imagine what it is like when 4 ladies, three generations of the same household, are all advised they've the ailment.

"It changed into mind-blowing," Michelle Brooks mentioned. "every so often it's nevertheless unbelievable."

Mildred, Tressy and Michelle

4 ladies in one family unit over three generations had been all diagnosed with breast cancer.

"in case you hear cancer, you say, 'Oh my God, loss of life ," Tressy Smith spoke of.

Sisters Tressy and Michelle, Tressy's daughter, Tabatha, and "Mama" are all on a journey that no one wanted to take.

In November of 2011, the youngest sister, Michelle, turned into the first to be clinically determined.

"I did my self exam and felt a lump," Michelle explained. "I simply prayed a great deal."

Michelle would ultimately move through eight rounds of chemo and a mastectomy. besides the hair loss, she had very little aspect effects.

Mildred and Michelle

Her sister Tressy turned into one the primary americans she told about her lifestyles-altering analysis.

"She goes, 'I desire you to touch it.' I pointed out, 'I don't want to contact it,'" Tressy said.

Tressy did feel Michelle's lump and the very next day felt the same form of lump in her own breast.

After Tressy stated one medical professional informed her it turned into all in her head because of Michelle's contemporary analysis, she switched docs and acquired the news she suspected in February of 2012.

Tressy and Michelle

Now, both sisters were fighting breast melanoma together.

"i know i was praying greater for her than i was praying for myself," Tressy observed.

for his or her mother, the information that her two daughters had cancer became too much.

"It simply came down on me. I simply cried and cried," Mildred O'tey, Tressy and Michelle's mom, said

Tressy had a double mastectomy, opting to eradicate each breasts -- even the match one -- as a precaution.

"I didn't wish to take that chance as a result of that is at all times going to be in the back of my mind," Tressy spoke of.

The family gathers within the kitchen.

The sisters leaned on each other and their faith even more.

Then in September of 2015 their own mother bought the same devastating prognosis.

"We're like looking at each other and said, 'truly? This can not be authentic,'" Tressy remembered.

The sisters talked about fear stored seventy seven-yr-old Mildred from telling the household that she too was combating breast cancer. They talked about their mother believed she already lived a long life.

Michelle turned into the one who noticed Mildred could had been fighting it for a long time after looking at her mother trade clothes.

"What she saw became the breast turned into fully long gone. It changed into a sore the size of a quarter. Black as my fingernail polish," Tressy pointed out pointing to her nail.

Mildred also underwent chemo.

Tabat ha

Then, a 12 months later their world changed into rocked again, when 24-12 months-old Tabatha became clinically determined.

"I all the time idea might be later on in existence i might were clinically determined because of everybody else in my family unit, but not at this time. At 24, it changed into really devastating," Tabatha stated.

because of her household history and she or he felt a lump, Tabatha pressed medical doctors to do a biopsy. that is when the melanoma became discovered. Tabatha underwent chemo and the tumor become eliminated along with her mom and twin sister within reach.

"We be aware of that a family unit historical past is a chance for getting breast melanoma," Dr. Mary Helen Hackney with VCU Massey cancer core referred to.

Dr. Hackney, who treated all four women, pointed out that while the household did not have the BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene it truly is linked to cancer, she warned other members of the family should still be proactive and get a mammogram or different imaging performed at an earlier age.

"if you start to peer that melanoma crop up of their 40s, you might be generations up and down," Dr. Hackney pointed out. "you're searching laterally."

Dr. Hackney suggest if a family doesn't have the BCRA 1 or BCRA 2 gene, they can shop their tissue in a "tissue financial institution" to be proven to see if there is a gene that's expanding the cancer risk in a single specific family.

All 4 girls beat cancer the best approach they know the way: collectively and with prayers.

"cancer free. I thank God for that. I thank God for that," Michelle said.