Jackie Speier — the former U.S. Congresswoman who represented California’s 14th district from 2008 to 2013 — has breast cancer.
The San Francisco native, who in March was elected to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, made the news public via social media.
“I have personal news that I want to share with you because we can all learn from it. I just became one of the 300,000 women per year who are diagnosed with breast cancer,” she posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) on July 4. “The good news is that it was discovered early and I had a successful lumpectomy on Tuesday.”
She shared her experience in hopes of motivating other women to get checked for signs of breast cancer.
“Here is what happened: I had a mammogram in June of 2023 and was scheduled for one in June this year. I almost didn’t go because of summer activities. Thank goodness I didn’t cancel,” she continued in the replies she made to her own original post. “I received excellent care from UCSF, surgeon Dr. Laura Esserman, radiologists Dr. Kimberly Ray and Dr. Alissa Price. The lesson here is, please be diligent about your own screenings and don’t skip them.”
I have personal news that I want to share with you because we can all learn from it. I just became one of the 300,000 women per year who are diagnosed with breast cancer.
The good news is that it was discovered early and I had a successful lumpectomy on Tuesday.— Jackie Speier (@RepSpeier) July 4, 2024
Speier’s announcement was greeted by a steady stream of well wishes and gratitude from others on the X platform.
“Thank you for helping others by sharing your story, @RepSpeier. Wishing you a speedy recovery from your surgery and many years of continued good health. I’m almost 8 years out from my dx with stage 3B breast cancer and doing well,” posted @KayeSteinsapir.
“Jackie, I’m so glad it was caught early. Thanks for sharing this news. I’m waiting for my follow up mammogram later this month after a ‘not so great’ one last month. Your news gives me hope,” @newt50 posted.
Besides her time as a U.S. Congresswoman, Speier, a longtime member of the Democratic Party, is also well known for her being part of a 1978 fact-finding mission to investigate what was going on with Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978. The team was ambushed by an armed group of Jones followers, leading to five people being killed and Speier being shot multiple times.