"You were 17 when you had breast cancer? I have never been so happy to hear that."

This past weekend my husband and I and a group of 8 of our friends went to a trivia night benefitting a young women's breast cancer group for one of the local hospitals - the same hospital that saved my life as I battled breast cancer nearly 13 years ago. Around us were doctors and surgeons and a room filled with donors looking to outsmart everyone else in the room. Needless to say, we never stood a chance... but man did we enjoy the bar!

The highlight of my night was meeting a young woman who was stalking an item on the silent auction next to one of my best friends who was stalking a chance to get us on a morning show to be able to tell my story during breast cancer awareness month (sadly we were outbid). After they had exchanged small talk I got a tap on my shoulder letting me know that there was someone interested in meeting me. This itself is not unusual at these things. While I never brake the ice by saying "Hi, my name is Alissa and I had breast cancer at 17," my husband and my friends all have brought it up in conversation with a stranger and that stranger always seems to be exactly who I was supposed to meet. It is like magic.

So here is this wonderful young woman, maybe 3 or 4 years older than me immediately reaching out for a hug and in our embrace she says something along the lines of, "You were 17 when you had breast cancer? I have never been so happy to hear that. I was 26. This is great! You understand what I mean, right?"

I DID! I totally understood. The "young women's" breast cancer groups are considered 45 and younger. In no way am I saying that 45 is old but when you are 17 or 26 it can still be hard to relate to someone who might already have a husband, a family and a career when you are fresh out of school, dating and trying to find your way. These age groups pose enough challenges as it is but then add nausea, strange side effects from meds, chemo brain, no hair, one boob, and endless recovery time and you are in a whole new ballgame. But closer in age, we felt like kindred spirits. We hugged again and started throwing out stories as if we had known each other our whole lives in the span of about 10 minutes. We both had miracle babies that we never thought we would ever be able to have. We both worked and finished school and were in remission and life was great.

A cancer diagnosis of any kind seems like a very lonely place and while you are going through it I think that all you want to know is that someone else is out there that can relate to what you are going through exactly. You want to know that you are going to be fine; that the road was paved and now you know exactly the way to go. After hearing for years from all of your doctors that "you are the youngest person I have ever treated for breast cancer," the two of us were comforted to know that there was someone else out there in the world that went through a lot of the same experiences.

As one of the trivia answers showed us that night, 13% of breast cancer diagnoses are in people under the age of 45. This number has increased since I was diagnosed in 2000. With this being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I want to bring attention to all women but especially younger women who may have never considered themselves to be at risk. I personally had no family history and did not carry a genetic mutation. Here are my two cents:

1) Know your body. Do your self exams. I can't stress to you how important they are. That is how I found my cancer and was able to get the courage to tell my pediatrician that I thought something was wrong. As you can imagine no one was expecting that diagnosis in a teenager and it took several months to convince anyone to remove the lump. Which brings me to my second point,

2) Be persistent if you feel like something is wrong. Get a second opinion if you have to.

3) Know your family history. Did your mom have breast cancer? Your Aunt? Your grandma? You should start cancer screenings AT LEAST 10 years before the age of their diagnosis.

4) Maintain a healthy weight, exercise and eat right. More studies are proving that not carrying extra pounds reduces your risk.

5) And finally know that if you do find yourself with a diagnosis, you are not alone! There is someone out there who understands. Seek them out. Ask a million questions. Let's talk.