Kriss Bowles was in Colorado attending a wedding with her husband, Brock, when he began complaining about pain in his spine as well as two of his ribs.
He felt a lump in his right breast, too.
(Courtesy of Kriss Bowles)
When they returned to their home in Lutz, Brock decided to see his doctor.
His main concern was trying to find out whether he had arthritis in his spine, but he also casually mentioned the lump in his breast, Kriss said.
The doctor ordered a mammogram to be taken the next day.
The screening led to a mastectomy, she added. The surgeon removed 13 lymph nodes, all of them cancerous.
Brock underwent chemotherapy, but despite the doctors’ efforts, the cancer spread to Brock’s lungs, hips, spine and brain before his ordeal with cancer ended his life on Sept. 16, 2004. His death certificate, however, highlighted breast cancer.
As the nation honors breast cancer awareness month in October with walks, runs, strolls, rallies and other events, Kriss — who now lives in Land O’ Lakes — wants people to remember that men die from breast cancer, too.
She said she felt compelled to get involved.
When her husband was battling cancer, “He’d lay in a recliner to sleep,” she said. “I would sit there and watch him sleep and wonder what was going through his mind. Because he knew he was dying.
“One day I said, ‘You know Lord, I know I’m not supposed to ask you why, but I’m asking ‘Why Brock?’‘”
Then she added, “I don’t expect an answer right now, but I hope someday you’ll give me an answer.”
After her husband’s death, Kriss said she began noticing that when people talked about breast cancer, they never mentioned men. So she’s made it her personal mission to spread the word about the need for men to be vigilant to protect themselves from breast cancer.
Besides being aware of symptoms, they need to avoid being too “macho” to take breast cancer seriously, Kriss said. It’s also important to eliminate any stigma: Men should not feel embarrassed about being afflicted with breast cancer because it is not a condition confined to women.
Kriss said her husband wasn’t embarrassed, but that’s not true for all men.
About 2,360 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among men, according to the 2014 statistics from the American Cancer Society. About 430 men will die from breast cancer during the year.
For men, the lifetime risk of getting breast cancer is about 1-in-1,000, according to Cancer Society estimates. The disease is about 100 times less common in men than women.
Because the incidence is so much lower, men are not routinely screened for breast cancer. The smaller number of cases, however, does not diminish the importance of the issue, Kriss said.
Male breast cancer affects everyone who has a husband, a son, a father, a brother, a nephew, an uncle or a grandfather, she said.
To help spotlight the issue, Kriss waged a letter-writing campaign last year, reaching out to governors across the nation. She asked them to designate the third week in October as Male Breast Cancer Awareness Week.
So far, 20 states have done so, she said. One of those states is New Jersey.
That’s where the Bowles lived before they moved to Florida.
Gov. Chris Christie made the designation after Assemblyman Nelson Albano spoke about Brock during the opening session in Trenton, New Jersey.
Besides writing letters, Kriss also has stickers printed, sharing that “Men get breast cancer, too.” She also has had pink ribbon pins made that have the words, “Men, too,” written on them.
She gives those stickers and pins to organizers of breast cancer events, to help spread the word.
It has been nine years, since Brock died. Kriss still does what she can to spread the word, and she’s beginning to see some progress.
One day, she hopes, that this month that’s awash with pink ribbons and breast cancer prevention events will do more to acknowledge that, as her stickers say, “Men get breast cancer, too.”
Published October 15, 2014
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