“This morning, I was operated on for breast cancer” announced Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier on her Linkedin profile on October 3, 2023.
“Today, as Pink October begins, it is up to me this time to bear witness to my personal story to save other lives of women.” In a long message posted on his account Linkedin on October 3, 2023, French cardiologist Claire Mounier-Vehier aged 61 years old announced her breast cancer. “Why me ? While I followed up very regularly and I had a very good lifestyle ?” she asked herself immediately after the diagnosis “like everyone else this has happened to”. This October 3, she is having surgery for this breast cancer detected last July during a check-up mammogram.
“After an initial reaction of astonishment, we must face the facts”
“After an initial reaction of astonishment, we quickly have to face the facts, accept this surgery which mutilates our female body when we also had to “deal with” menopause, which is not easy to manage on a daily basis” she continues. Professor Claire Mounier-Vehier has been mobilizing for years to ensure that women take more care of themselves, that they listen to their hearts, reminding each time they speak that Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death among women In France (200 deaths every day) and that too often women ignore their symptoms. Cardiologist at Lille University Hospital for 36 years and today Head of the Vascular Medicine and Arterial Hypertension Department at the Heart Lung Institute of the University Hospital, Claire Mounier-Vehier was Honorary President of the French Federation of Cardiology from 2015 to 2019 then created the endowment fund “Acting for the Hearts of Women” with Thierry Drilhon in 2020. A year later, she launched the first edition of the “Bus du Coeur des Femmes”, a bus which travels through several large cities in France to meet women in precarious situations to offer them a cardiovascular screening.
“Most illnesses are treatable, but the worst thing is to ignore them”
“With Agir pour le Coeur des Femmes and Thierry Drilhon, we are constantly ALERTING on each of the stages of the Bus du Coeur des Femmes. (…) Nearly half of women do not have their screening mammogram, for fear of the diagnosis, lack of time, forgetfulness, etc.“ but “it is essential to ANTICIPATE to know and ACT as quickly as possible. Most illnesses can be treated, but the worst thing is to ignore them.”
Her cancer was diagnosed “early” as she had her mammograms regularly. This early detection will “give me the maximum chance of recovery. So please, listen to yourself, screen yourself, take time for yourself ladies, don’t neglect the warning symptoms, the little signals that tell you “be careful I should perhaps consult…”Some things can’t wait. Tomorrow it might be too late.”