News 12 @ 11 o'clock -- October 5, 2008

Sadie Brooks has spent the last seventeen years fighting the breast cancer battle.

"When I found out I did had it, my whole life changed," said Sadie Brooks.

Sadie says the twenty-nine days she spent at University Hospital going through chemo and radiation gave her a chance to come to terms with what she was dealing with.

"It was just one of those things that I had to just turn it over to the Lord. I said Lord, this is your body, you know more about it then I do, just give me the strength to handle the outcome of it," said Sadie.

Studies show African-American women have the highest breast cancer death rate among minority women at a rate of 34 per 100,000.

"A lot of people don't go because they don't have insurance. Some of us can be in denial and think and hope and wish it'll go away, it's not going to go away," said Sadie.

But Sadie's faced breast cancer and says she'll do whatever it takes to continue beating the odds.

"Nothing will stop this 63 year old brown skinned, peanut butter, anointed healthy lady!"

A lady that says she'll keep on fighting this battle, for herself and others.

"I stay in the fight because I found out that it's power in the tongue. It's either life or death and I chose life, not death."

The best way for women to protect themselves is with routine self breast exams and getting mammograms starting at age 40. But if there's a history of breast cancer in your family, you may want to get checked earlier.