Sarah Harris : My name is Sarah Harris. I am 41 years old and I live in Hurricane, West Virginia. I have three children. They are 5, 8, and 16. I work part-time and I do freelance work at the intersection of education and disability. My husband is a Teamster, so he works for UPS and we have Teamster Health Benefits, which I have had to search outside of the state for care options. Related to what was discovered during my first mammogram last year. I had a lesion inside of my breast that had to be further biopsied, and it turns out it's called lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) It's an, "I don't have cancer YET" kind of scenario where I'm highly likely to develop it in not just one, but it could be both breasts. The options became to take medication for the rest of my life and sort of keep my fingers crossed. And hope that I don't develop breast cancer, I would still be at 5 times greater risk than my peers to develop it. The second option I had was to have a double mastectomy and reconstruction. And while much scarier, it's the one that would give me the best outcome. And I'm only 41 years old. I still have a 5-year-old daughter, so it feels like the choice is already made for me. I could do that here in West Virginia, but my options would be pretty limited based on what practitioners are here and what surgical interventions they can do. There's actually a whole book of options that was given to me, and out of all of the varieties here, I think only 2 or 3 options exist to me in West Virginia. Not to say that there aren't skilled surgeons in West Virginia, there absolutely are. They're saving lives every day, but for me, going out of state is going to be the path that I ultimately take because the type of surgery that I choose. Isn't available to me here. Having access to mammograms has obviously saved my life. If that hadn't happened, I would have eventually developed cancer and my story would have been much different. Having access gave me Power. It gave me control. It gave me knowledge and therefore it opened up options. I want our West Virginia lawmakers to understand that insurance is, is a human right. We all need it. We all need medical care. We all get sick. We all need access to preventative screenings. Those preventative screening saved my life. The fact that I have options and can access the type of care that I feel is best for my body and for my particular situation, even though it's not available here in West Virginia, has changed my life and that is something that all West Virginians deserve, all Americans deserve to have access to affordable healthcare options.
