Two Anderson friends advocate for breast cancer awareness after diagnosis

ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WXIX) - After decades of being close friends and making life-long memories together, two Anderson women also shared the scariest diagnosis of their lifetimes.

It all started in the school cafeteria when Leanne Langdon and Lauren McNutt met in the third grade. From high school graduation, to traveling together, to being in each other’s weddings, the two did everything together. But they were also diagnosed with breast cancer around the same time.

“‘Hey, what’s going on? You go first,’” McNutt recalled that day. “And she said, ‘I have cancer,’ and I said, ‘I do too and here’s what I’ve done already.’”

Both women were diagnosed with breast cancer last year just two days apart, they said.

While McNutt and Langdon’s illnesses were different, they both received a mastectomy and scheduled their chemotherapy treatments on the same days.

“We car pooled sometimes to chemo together and it was just like high school,” Langdon said. “My mom would drive us, your mom would drive us, my mom would pick us up.”

As the two women went through one of their most difficult hardships, they said that they were “oddly blessed” to go through it together because they could be honest and vulnerable with one another.

“During the moments when I was down, she could be the positive one and vice versa, and there were moments when we were both down together and we just pulled each other through,” Langdon explained.

As Breast Cancer Awareness month continues, their message to women is to never miss your annual exam, and when you think sometime might be wrong, speak up.

“You have to be an advocate for yourself,” Landgon said. “Nobody will care about your health as much as you do.”

Both women have to get checkups every few months for now to ensure no cancer has returned, but they said they are both looking forward to doing other things than going through breast cancer together.

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