Leila Johnson I was born in 1929 in Los Angeles of African-American parents. My father was part owner of a small corner grocery store, and my mother taught piano lessons. My family had no history of cancer.
0-19 years I was a quiet child who loved to read and to write poetry and short plays, which my friends and I would stage. I was a good student and neither smoked nor drank. After finishing high school, I started college, majoring in English literature.	20-39 years I finished my degree and, at age 22, married my childhood sweetheart. My husband and I moved to rural Georgia, where I taught high school during the school year and gardened during the summer. Because of regular insect invasions, I used pesticides often, but always washed my vegetables before eating them. I also oversaw the pesticide spraying that I sometimes hired people to do in my gardens. After two miscarriages, I had my first child at age 28.
40-59 years I had my second and third children at ages 31 and 37. Although I breastfed the first two children for a year each, I didn’t breastfeed the third. Because of the distance I had to travel to see my doctor, I had only sporadic health care most of my life. I examined my breasts when I remembered to-did not have regular clinical examinations. Mammograms at age 50 and 56 were normal; I experienced menopause at age 53 and went on hormone replacement therapy. ·	60+ years I found my first lump in my breast when I was 63. When I saw the doctor six months later I was diagnosed with breast cancer. By then, the treatment was full mastectomy. After my surgery, I was put on a schedule of radiation therapy and chemotherapy, and then started on Tamoxifen, a drug that reduces the risk of developing breast cancer. Today I am doing poorly-the cancer has metastasized to my liver and is not responding to therapy.