Beyonce’s father, Matthew Knowles has revealed how he discovered he had breast cancer.
Mr. Knowles said he began to notice that the white t-shirts his wife bought for him had red dots on them. He initially thought it had to do with the t-shirts because the red dots were always on the same spot on all the t-shirts.
He said he then asked his wife, Gena Avery, about the “black dots of blood” on his t-shirt and she told him that she also noticed those black dots of blood on the side of their bed sheets.
Mathew said he recalled that discharge of blood is one of the signs of breast cancer in men so he called his physician and said to him, “I need to get a mammogram”.
He got a mammogram the next day and then a biopsy, which showed he had breast cancer.
“And then a few days later, I had surgery and I had a mastectomy,” he recalled.
He explained that just before surgery, his surgeon told him there is one more test he wants him to undergo. When the result came out, it showed he was “BRCA2 mutated”.
Mutations in the BRCA2 gene are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in both men and women, as well as several other types of cancer, according to MedlinePlus.
Breast cancer is the same disease that claimed the lives of Mathew Knowles’ mother, aunt, and great-aunt.
Mr. Knowles then begged men to get tested because they too are susceptible to breast cancer.
Mathew Knowles is now cancer-free.
.@MathewKnowles’ message for others after his breast cancer diagnosis: “I’m hoping by me coming here today, speaking out, letting folks know, that you can survive this but it has to be early detection and I can’t overemphasize the word early.” https://t.co/zMRJ4O03lS pic.twitter.com/pctiQAP4Y8
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 2, 2019
