Two years ago, UNA junior Kelsey Pruitt came to a startling halt in her life when her mother found a lump in her breast and was forced to undergo a bilateral mastectomy to remove the cancer.

The cancer, however, spread to her mother’s lymph nodes and left arm, and eventually she had to have a full hysterectomy because the physicians discovered she had developed pre-ovarian cancer.

Doctors told Pruitt and her two sisters that they each had a 50/50 chance of developing breast cancer some day, which is why they have mammograms every six months to detect any early signs of cancer.

“I’m not as scared now because I know what it’s going to be like if I do get (breast cancer),” said Pruitt, a member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority and whose mother continues to fight cancer today.

Peggy Bergeron, certified registered nurse practitioner with the UNA Health and Wellness Center, said one in eight women in the U.S. are at risk of having an invasive form of breast cancer at some point throughout their lives. For men, approximately 2,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed this year, according to the American Cancer Society.

Bergeron, who has lost two family members to and had a personal scare with breast cancer, said breast cancer is more deadly when found in young women.

“Everyone is affected by it,” she said. “There are students on campus who have family experiences with breast cancer, be it with their mother, aunt, cousin, sister or sister-in-law.”

Being female, family history of breast cancer, inherited genes, tobacco and alcohol consumption, diet, exercise and exposure to estrogen are some of the potential risk factors of developing breast cancer, said officials with breastcancer.org.

Breast cancer was more of a death sentence when Emily Kelley, coordinator of the UNA Women’s Center, was younger, but better education and early detection of the cancer have been key to higher survival rates in recent years, she said.

Kelley lost her aunt to breast cancer in the late 1960s and said her death had a deep impact on her entire family.

“It does affect so many lives in such a deeply profound manner in so many ways that people don’t even have an appreciation of,” she said. “People need to be aware of it and work toward finding a cure. Just because more people are surviving doesn’t mean we should give up looking for a cure, doesn’t mean we need to be complacent.”

Breast self-exams, as well as screening and diagnostic tests, are recommended for women and men to detect potential symptoms of breast cancer, Bergeron said. If detected, breast cancer can be treated with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, hormonal therapy and medications.

The philanthropy for ZTA is breast cancer education and awareness, said Jennie Sun, UNA student and president of the sorority. Because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, her organization is planning a number of breast-cancer events at UNA through the beginning of November.

“The community and campus should get involved because our main goal is to raise as much awareness as possible for breast cancer,” she said. “We want to make sure women of all ages are educated about this life threatening disease and can detect it as early as possible.”

Members of ZTA will host the annual Pink Party the evening of Nov. 4, for all students, faculty, staff and community members to participate. Erin McCay, Pink Party chair with ZTA and UNA student, said the party will consist of entertainment by Moon Dance, a yogurt eating contest, a pink balloon arch with breast cancer awareness bows and more.

The breast cancer events leading up to the Nov. 4 party will include ZTA members handing out pink lemonade, encouraging fraternities to purchase individual paper links for a breast cancer awareness paper chain, and painting the UNA campus pink.

Tamara Lee, secretary for Knowledge for Life, said her father’s cousin recently discovered she had breast cancer and had her breast removed this past summer to prevent the cancer from spreading.

For Lee, the reality that any person, regardless of age or gender, can be diagnosed with breast cancer helped her put things into perspective.

“You never know when (breast cancer) is going to happen to you,” she said. “You always think of other people having it, but it can always happen to you.”