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A New Voice in Breast Cancer Activism: Soraya's Story

Summary & Participants

Award-winning Latina singer-songwriter Soraya has had her share of personal tragedy. She lost her grandmother, her maternal aunt, and her mother to breast cancer. But nothing could have prepared her for her own breast cancer diagnosis at the age of 31. Listen to her story of recovery and why she joined forces with Susan G. Komen for the Cure to get an important message out about early detection to her Latino and Hispanic sisters.

Medically Reviewed On: May 07, 2008

Webcast Transcript

Editor’s note: After a battle with breast cancer, Soraya passed away on May 10, 2006. Soraya led a tireless advocacy campaign to promote awareness and educate communities about breast cancer, and these efforts continue in her memory. In her final days, she posted this farewell message on her website, "I have not lost this battle, because I know the fight was not in vain. Instead, it will help end a larger battle, which is early detection to prevent this terrible disease."

ANNOUNCER: Millions know her simply as Soraya. At 34, she's a talented singer/songwriter, popular with legions of Hispanic and Latino fans and now gaining international recognition.

SORAYA: My uncle was playing these Colombian songs, these typical Colombian songs, and I just fell in love. I was hypnotized, mesmerized by his voice, by his dad's voice, by the harmonies and everything. I asked my dad for a guitar and started playing.

I'm self-taught, a self-taught guitarist. Then I studied classical violin. That I did learn. And just started song writing. Once I discovered poetry, there was no turning back. I knew that I could put the two worlds together.

ANNOUNCER: What most fans never knew was that some of Soraya's music was inspired by personal tragedy in her own life. Soraya had lost her aunt, grandmother and her mother all to breast cancer.

SORAYA: I made it a point to go to the doctor's visits with my mom. I made it a point to do some research with her. I made it a point to go to The Race for the Cure and be proactive in those sort of things.

ANNOUNCER: Yet Soraya's awareness was not typical for the Hispanic and Latino community.

SORAYA: My parents are from Colombia, but my Mom didn't grow up with Race for The Cure. She didn't grow up with pink ribbons. She didn't grow up with commercials on TV from a car dealership reminding you to go get a mammogram.

ANNOUNCER: In fact only about 40% of Hispanic and Latina women have regular mammograms, and doctors think this may explain the poor survival rate in this community.

AMELIE RAMIREZ, Dr.P.H.: Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among Hispanic women within the area of cancer, and its an area that we're very concerned about. Hispanic women are coming in at a much later stage when they are diagnosed with breast cancer. They put off coming in for early detection and screening and so when they do come in at this later state, the tumors are much larger and are very difficult to treat.

ANNOUNCER: Then, three years ago, Soraya found a lump in her breast during a breast self exam. Like the women in her family, she had breast cancer.

SORAYA: I was only one week into the promotion of the record, so that was a big shock for my career. Professionally. But really the career didn't matter at that point. It was just getting through it, figuring out what I had to do, how to stay focused, how to stay strong, where to pull that strength from.

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