The 'Sisters Network' has helped Black women navigate breast cancer for 30 years

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Breast cancer is the number one cancer among women and the second leading cause of death for women after heart disease. But it's even more deadly for women of color.

One support group based in Houston works to make sure Black women understand the need for early detection and treatment.

That's because Black women are more likely to get breast cancer later, and in a more aggressive form.

One Houston woman has spent decades trying to change that. In fact, few women know more about breast cancer than Karen Jackson, who's fought that battle repeatedly.

The video featured above is from ABC13 Houston's Streaming Channel.

"Four times I had to confront breast cancer, and four times I had to find a new normal," Jackson said.

She also had to find doctors willing to give her a voice in her own health, like when she demanded a mammogram and an ultrasound, knowing that by only doing one, they might miss her cancer.

Jackson urges other women to be equally aggressive.

"That's why it's so important for organizations and for women to know and be an advocate for themselves because your knowledge can save your life," Jackson said.

She says that's especially true for Black women, and it's why she started "Sisters Network," a breast cancer support group for women of color.

When she was diagnosed in the '90s, she says Black women were often blamed by doctors for their own cancer.

"We as Black women were told that we didn't care about our health," Jackson explains. "We didn't care about taking tests. We didn't care about going to treatment. That was not true. The cancer that we were facing then did not have a name, but it has a name now. It's called 'triple Negative.'"

Triple negative is one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, and it strikes Black women more than twice as often as white women. It's why even younger Black women, under the age of 35, get breast cancer at double the rate as white women and die of it three times as often. It's also why she felt Black women had different issues to grapple with.

"When I was diagnosed, I went to other organizations that were existing," she says, "I learned a lot. But I would go home with a sense of emptiness and loneliness."

"But when I started getting my treatments, I started running into women who looked like me," she continued. "And I made the decision that we needed to have a national voice."

It's for women like Janice Sherman, whose mother and aunt were among more than a dozen women who helped form Sisters Network nearly 30 years ago. So when Sherman was diagnosed with breast cancer, she knew just where to go.

"Some people are afraid," Sherman said. "And you used to hear that old adage that what you don't know won't kill you. But it can certainly kill you."

She adds, "so I stress that knowledge is power, go and get informed."

Jackson reflects on what Sisters Network has done for Black women over the last three decades. "It's a good feeling to be needed and to know you've done something right. And the best thing for me is to continue what I do, and hopefully I will live long enough to see the cure."

Sisters Network was founded in Houston with only 15 women. Now there are 25 chapters around the nation.

For more information, you can go to their website at sistersnetworkinc.org.

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