Women's health

Breast cancer: Advocate harder, advocate smarter

Fortunately, Lisa B. Jones' hereditary breast cancer was detected early. Today, she helps disadvantaged women in similar situations in New York.
6min
Leane Clifton
Published on 18. Oktober 2021

Three women, three countries, three individual breast cancer stories. In the third part of this three-part series Lisa B. Jones, a native New Yorker who has survived cancer meets our journalist and a photographer in Harlem to talk about her work as a healthcare advocate and SHARE1 ambassador helping women navigate breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. 

Lisa B. Jones stands outside the entrance to Ryan Health in Harlem, New York City, one of her favorite places
The picture shows Lisa B. Jones´ partner Charles Shorter

The smoothie chef

Her mother’s daughter

Disparity in healthcare

The image shows a graph indicating that prior to the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic, 37 percent of breast cancer diagnoses were associated with symptomatic disease. Tumor sizes classified as T1c or larger were seen in 64 percent of diagnosed breast cancer cases. During the same period in 2020, 78 percent of breast cancer diagnoses were associated with symptomatic disease and 78 percent of diagnosed breast cancer cases were found to have tumor sizes classified T1c or greater.


A study across the Kaiser Permanente Northern California health care system contrasted newly diagnosed breast cancer cases within a defined period of time in 2019 with cases that had occurred during the same period in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the proportion of symptomatic manifestations and the proportion of more aggressive and advanced tumors diagnosed during the pandemic were elevated compared with the previous year. These and other results of the study led the researchers to conclude how important screening and early diagnosis are in the context of breast cancer.[1]

The SHARE community

Post-cancer Lisa

Lisa B. Jones sits in an office and talks about the time she had breast cancer.

By Leane Clifton
Leane Clifton is a New York based TV producer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker, with a focus on society, health and technology.