Entering October means enter breast cancer awareness month.
Mathew Knowles courageously also entered to come forward with a surprising truth: He's been diagnosed with breast cancer. The 67-year old father to Beyonce and Solange Knowles exclusively shared the news with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America.
He explained realizing something was wrong when he would find drops on blood on his shirts which he brushed off as "interesting." Then, his wife would find blood on their bedsheets.
A couple of days passed, and I didn’t have any type of discharge. Then on the fifth day, another, just a tiny drop of blood. I told my wife, I said, 'Look at this,' And she says, 'You know, when I cleaned the sheets the other day I saw a drop of blood on it, and I didn’t pay any attention to it -- but this is kind of weird.' I immediately went to my doctor.
When I had the blood on my T-shirt initially I didn’t think it was breast cancer. My mind went a lot of places. My mind went to what medication I was on, because different medications might have caused some sort of discharge ... and then I thought, just because of the risk factor, that it could be breast cancer and I would go get a mammogram.
It's an unfortunate pattern Mathew has found within the women of his bloodline between his aunt and two female cousins who all died from breast cancer. A mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy later, the results came back that he was in Stage 1 cancer. Being a male with this illness is such a rarity and it lit a fire under the music executive to want to help more men speak out about having breast cancer without feeling embarrassment. He went on to explain the work he wants to do to make breast clinics more welcoming for men.
We have work to do. I shared with the University of Pennsylvania that if we’re going to try to emphasize breast cancer for both men and women we’ve got to change the process of getting an exam. Even from walking into a building that says 'female breast clinic.' That has to be rethought, to the point that the questions that were asked: 'When was the last time you had your cycle? Have you ever had a pregnancy?' These have to change.
The crew also announced that Carla Ferrell will be in Chicago for the Sister Strut Breast Cancer Walk. Find out more information about that at the 3:40 mark below!
Photo: Good Morning America