Ebony Steele, the lovely and talented co-host of the nationally syndicated “Rickey Smiley Morning Show,” is a three-year breast cancer survivor and a Susan G. Komen for the Cure Circle of Promise Ambassador. She is also one of five Survivor Ambassadors for General Mills’ Pink Together campaign.
Steele, who was only 35 when diagnosed, decided to share her story with her audience because she knew that’s what God wanted her to do. She had no idea that the outpouring of love and support from her fans would also be the catalyst that would help her survive the disease as well.
“It’s the best thing I could have done … instead of keeping it to myself and being selfish, it was actually therapeutic for me knowing that there were people who depended on hearing my voice every morning,” she says.
Though the risk is much lower than in women, even men can get breast cancer. An estimated 19,540 new cases of breast cancer are expected to occur among African American women and it is also the most commonly diagnosed cancer among African American women. Although white women are more likely to to be afflicted with breast cancer, African American women are more likely to die from it.
“I now know what my purpose is,” says Steele. “I wasn’t old, uneducated, poor, a smoker or drinker, yet I still got breast cancer and this disease doesn’t discriminate. I just want to get the message out to women to get ahold of their health and to be proactive and get screened.” –christa jackson
For more information, visit www.ebonysteele.com.
