Important Health Issue Addressed at a October Conference at Jeremiah's Restaurant in Our City N. Ogden family shares breast cancer message Marriott-Slaterville conference stresses exams By JAMIE LAMPROS_ Standard-Examiner correspondent NORTH OGDEN - It was 1988 when Juana Rubio found a lump in her breast. In 1994 breast cancer took her life. She was only 43 years old. "She was scared to go to the hospital when she found the lump," said Maria, Rubio's 15-year-old daughter, who was only 6 at the time of her mother's death. "By the time she finally went to the hospital they told her it was too late. The cancer had spread." Rubio left behind nine children at the time of her death. Maria, her 13-year-old sister, Juanita, and their 28-year-old sister, Dora, said it was and still is the hardest thing they have ever dealt with in their lives. "It's really hard," Juanita said. "I was only 4 at the time, but I really miss her." Dora said her mother didn't speak English, so she spent a majority of her time taking her around to her doctor visits and treatments." "I missed school to take her, and I was happy to do it," Dora said. "But when she died I had to give up my college education so I could help my other two sisters raise my siblings. It was very hard on all of us." Recently, the girls decided they wanted to become involved in breast cancer awareness. At the first-ever breast cancer conference, sponsored by the Northern Utah chapter of the American Cancer Society, the girls told their story. "It's so important to go and get a mammogram and do self breast exams," Dora said. "And don't be afraid to go to the doctor if you find a lump. Think about your children and how important you are to them and how much they need you." Cathy Beus followed that advice and went to the doctor the very same day she found a lump under her arm at the age of 41, while shaving. "It was as hard as a rock," she said. "I was sent for an ultrasound and a biopsy and ended up having a lumpectomy and radiation." Three years later, Beus said she is cancer-free. "Six months before I discovered the lump, I had a mammogram that didn't show anything at all," she said. "While mammograms are important and every woman should get one, it just goes to show how important self-exams are too." The conference was held at Jeremiah's Restaurant on Saturday. It featured a fashion show, with clothing modeled by breast-cancer survivors and keynote speaker Christine Jacobsen, owner of Wasatch Pharmacy and a specialist in natural hormone replacement therapy. "HRT is a controversy right now, and it's important for women to know they have alternatives," Jacobsen said. Jacobsen said alleviating symptoms of menopause and even peri-menopause with natural hormones gives women another option to look at without putting themselves at risk for breast cancer. Jacobsen works with customers to provide customized bio-identical hormone replacement therapy for each individual woman. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to the National Breast Cancer Society, breast cancer impacts more than 240,000 new patients a year in the United States.