To emphasize that breast cancer can strike anyone, WNBA.com is featuring “Her Story,” a series of first-person tales from players telling the stories of loved ones who have been affected by the disease, throughout Breast Health Awareness Week. Fans who have also coped with breast cancer can post stories about themselves or those close to them on the site’s Fan Voice section. To share your experiences, please click here.

Her Story: Tamera Young, Chicago Sky

I lost my grandmother to breast cancer and my aunt is a survivor.

My grandmother, Massie Young, died from breast cancer when I was nine years old. Because I was so young when she got breast cancer I wasn’t too sure about what it was and what it meant. I just knew that she was sick. I remember going to see her and I remember that she was in and out of the hospital. When she passed, I was upset because I was close to my grandmother, but I was young so I didn’t know much about it then.

Then as I got older, I realized how serious breast cancer is and what it does. So I feel that every woman should go get a mammogram because it’s something really serious. It seems now is a time that a lot of women are getting diagnosed with it, but they are able to catch it faster than my aunt.

My aunt, her name is Patricia Nichols, was diagnosed when I was a junior in college. I see her often so I saw her throughout the entire process. I saw her when she had to get chemo and lost all of her hair, I saw her when she had to go through the radiation and some of her skin looked very different throughout the process. Breast cancer goes up to stage four in and she was at stage three. Just seeing her going though it – she was such a fighter – it was something serious to me and kind of sensitive because she was one of my favorite aunts and I was so close to her. Just seeing her fight it and going through what she had to go through, it meant so much to me. I would hate to see anyone go through that, but she’s a survivor and I’m glad and now she’s doing a lot better. Everything is better now.

I talk to my mom about it a lot. I ask her, mom do you go get mammograms? Because that was my mom’s sister that had it, she’s making sure she goes in to get checked in a timely manner. Breast cancer is on both sides of my family, so I know it’s something that when I get a little bit older I’m going to need to do myself. It was my paternal grandmother, my father’s mother, and my aunt is my mom’s sister, so I have it on both sides of my family. The doctors say at age 30, or as early as 25, you should start going to get checked for it.

I got this tattoo about a month ago in remembrance of my grandmother and for my aunt for being a survivor.

Breast cancer awareness week really means a lot to me because I wasn’t always too sure about breast cancer. I heard about it. I knew what it was as I got older, but seeing a family member suffer from it, it enlightens you. It’s like goodness I actually see someone going through it and I actually see how serious it is. Sometimes you take things for granted until you actually see it or you actually experience it. Since I’ve seen my aunt go through it, when we did the breast cancer awareness day in college, after they handed us the pink stuff, I would continue to wear it for my aunt.

About a month ago I got a tattoo with the word Hope and it’s written in breast cancer awareness symbols on the inside of my arm. It’s in remembrance of my grandmother and for my aunt for being a survivor.