CINCINNATI — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Ashley Holbrook has a story worth telling. The bride-to-be is getting married next Friday — just months after a breast cancer diagnosis made her question whether that day would ever come.
"I'm getting married on next Friday, which I'm so excited for, and I literally cannot believe it," Holbrook said.
WATCH: Bride-to-be walks down the aisle after beating breast cancer diagnosis
Holbrook had been dreaming of her wedding day for years. When doctors told her she had breast cancer about six months ago, the future felt uncertain. When asked if she was terrified she wouldn't make it to her wedding day, Holbrook said yes.
"Your whole life kind of goes into perspective when you get that diagnosis, and you start thinking I'm not gonna be able to have kids, I'm not gonna be able to have my wedding, I'm not gonna be able to do all these things," Holbrook said.
Holbrook always knew there was a chance she could get breast cancer. Her mom and grandmother are both survivors, and genetic testing showed she carries a gene that predisposes her to the disease. That knowledge led her to Christ Hospital's High Risk Clinic, where routine testing found the cancer.
Dr. Jennifer Manders, who treated Holbrook, explained how her family history set the stage for the diagnosis.
"So in her case, she had a mother and grandmother who both carried this gene. She found out that she indeed carried that gene and then what, six months or so later, found out that there was something not good in her breast tissue," Manders said.
Manders gave Holbrook two treatment options. One would have made Holbrook infertile — and she wants children — so that was ruled out.
"In this situation she was diagnosed with noninvasive breast cancer and elected to have both breasts removed, and luckily there was no invasion, nothing found in her mastectomy specimens that would warrant any treatment for her whole body. And so essentially she's cured," Manders said.
Holbrook credits early detection for making her storybook ending possible.
"At least find out. Because you can do something with the information you have or you don't have to, but if you have the information, you can prevent something infinitely worse. Which is what happened with me," Holbrook said.
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