In the community affected by breast cancer, a previvor is a person who tested positive for a genetic mutation that increases the risk of diagnosis and takes aggressive action to prevent it. A survivor is someone who was diagnosed with the disease and is still alive.
A metastatic breast cancer " thriver ," or "metavivor," or "metathriver," is someone who has a productive life while getting treatment for the incurable disease as a condition. Nine years ago, Tracy Milgram-Posner founded a nonprofit organization that serves previvors, survivors, and thrivers.
Milgram-Posner was 18 years old when she underwent her first lumpectomy, a surgical procedure to remove a breast tumor. Doctors found it was benign. After having her second lumpectomy at 19 years old, she tested positive for the BRCA 2 mutation at 21. The loneliness and lack of information prompted her to found the organization.
"Men can get breast cancer too," Milgram-Posner said on Saturday night during The Diamond Ball , a gala in Fort Lauderdale to benefit BRCAStrong , the nonprofit organization she founded about nine years ago.
Beyonce's father Mathew Knowles talked about his breast cancer diagnosis and encouraged men to get tested - especially Black men who tend to have the worse cancer outcomes.
