Vanessa Bell Calloway Face Of Susan G. Komen “Know Your Girls” Campaign

FirstLadyB | Positive, There's No Better Way!

Saints and Sinners star, Vanessa Bell Calloway is the new face of Susan G. Komen “Know Your Girls” campaign.

The “Know Your Girls” campaign is all about encouraging Black women to take control of their breast health by knowing their risk, knowing their bodies, getting screened and talking with their doctors.

Calloway shared her Breast Cancer story a couple of years ago:

Six years ago, I woke up from my sleep with the funniest feeling. Others call it a hunch or voices from the dead, but I knew God was whispering in my ear to tell me something was wrong. Even though I wasn’t in any pain, I needed to call my physician as soon as possible for an appointment.

I wanted every test he could administer in his office, so he gave me a CAT scan and blood work. Then he asked, “When was your last mammogram?”

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I had missed my test that year by about four months, because the clinic I frequented had closed permanently and I hadn’t found another yet. My doctor suggested a facility right down the street from his office, so I went that same day for an examination.

A couple of days later, the nurses called and said there were some suspicious calcifications in my right breast. I told myself at that moment, “That’s what God was telling me.”

I went back, and the radiologist read my x-ray to point out some questionable white dots. Although he couldn’t detect anything specific until I had a biopsy, I believed it was cancer. Days later, I found out I was right.

That was the day I was the maddest. I wanted to throw things, but I wasn’t tearing up my house. I had a hard time coming to grips with my condition, but my husband and sister turned it around, reminding me “it’s just a breast. Let it go.”

Anthony had tears in his eyes when he said, “We’ve got weddings and anniversaries to attend. I need you.” That’s when the anger washed away. I was able to deal with the reality.

After finally telling my mother in person and my in-laws over the phone, I held a family meeting with my children. I flew my oldest daughter Ashley home to Los Angeles from Atlanta, where she was a sophomore at Spelman College, and revealed the news to her and and my youngest girl Alexandra, then a sophomore in high school.

While my 19-year-old cried and comforted me, my 15-year-old reacted differently. She didn’t weep. She didn’t hug me. She couldn’t touch me or look at me. She stayed away from me. I later found out she was just terrified.

Before my operation and upon my doctor’s approval, I attended Ashley’s first homecoming as a member of Mahogany in Motion, Morehouse College’s dance team. I didn’t want to miss life. I decided cancer was not going to ruin me.

When I returned, I shopped for two surgeons for a 12-hour surgery. One performed the mastectomy and the other reconstructed my breast by using my body tissue from my stomach.

I showed them photos of me on the red carpet, and I made sure to tell them to leave my cleavage. My playboy days are over, but I still needed to be sexy.

I recovered at home for several weeks. I felt at ease, and I knew I had been in good hands. I am so glad I did it that way, because I don’t think it would have been good to do radiation as an actress with the possible changes in skin color and texture.

Three months after the surgery, I booked Hawthorne on TNT, which starred Jada Pinkett-Smith. It was such a blessing, because I still needed to wear my healing undergarments and my character wore scrubs and flat shoes. It was perfect. No one knew what I had gone through until after I was cured.

Now, I’ve been breast cancer free for six years.

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