Cindy Zamirowski credits digital mammography for catching her breast cancer at its earliest stage, thereby possibly saving her life. The 57 year-old teacher has been going to Adventist Hinsdale Hospital’s DuPage Imaging Center for years. It was there at her annual digital mammogram appointment in July 2007 where her doctor detected a pea-shaped cyst in her right breast.
“It was very small, and deep,” said Zamirowski, a Bolingbrook resident. “There was no way to physically feel it because it was in such a position where they had to pull my breast in deeply during the mammogram process.”
Zamirowski then underwent an ultrasound and a biopsy, where it was determined the lump was cancerous. A lumpectomy was performed a month later at Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital. Radiation treatments followed and she’s been cancer-free ever since.
A sixth-grade reading teacher, Zamirowski informed her students of her diagnosis and kept them apprised of her progress. She also encouraged them to tell their mothers to get digital mammograms, which she describes as “the latest, greatest thing.”
“I got e-mails from families saying, ‘Thank you for keeping the kids in the loop and sharing your story with them. It’s helped them to see that it’s not a death sentence and that there is hope,’” said Zamirowski, who lost her mother to lymphoma in 2006.
Zamirowski organized a team, dubbed Cindy’s Angels, to participate in the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization 2008 Chicago Race to Empower. Cindy’s Angels, comprised mostly of Zamirowski’s students and their mothers, exceeded its $3,000 fundraising goal weeks before the event.
“I encourage women to get out there and not be afraid of digital mammography,” Zamirowski said. “It’s worth a little inconvenience and a little discomfort to save your life.”