76-Year-Old Who Beat Cancer 3 Times Shares Her Advice

Georgie Aspros is still proudly sporting "both boobs" after beating breast cancer twice, and she wants every woman to know why that matters.

The 76-year-old Wellington woman discovered tumors in each breast through routine mammograms, the first at age 64 in 2014 and the second in 2019. Neither tumor was large enough to feel, and one didn't even show up on an ultrasound.

Because the cancers were caught early, Aspros avoided mastectomy and chemotherapy. She had two lumpectomies and radiation treatment instead, working through most of it.

Aspros describes herself as practical and unsentimental. When doctors found the second tumor during her final annual checkup, she simply thought "here we go again" and got it dealt with.

Her approach to cancer is refreshingly matter-of-fact. "I'm a bit of a Pollyanna, so I kind of see that everything has an upside," she says.

But Aspros knows her story could have ended differently without those mammograms. She also survived a rare sarcoma on her thigh, bringing her total to three different cancers.

Unlike her mother, who died at 50 from uterine cancer that family members kept quiet, Aspros was completely open with her sons. She believes honesty and information are key.

"If you know about it then it's not half as worrying," she explains. "I just made sure I had all the information and then told them. It was all very matter-of-fact."

Why This Inspires

Aspros is speaking up during Breast Cancer Awareness Month because the statistics are powerful. Women whose breast cancer is detected by mammogram have a 95% chance of surviving 10 years or longer.

She urges younger women to get at least one mammogram "just to be nosy, so you have a baseline of what's normal for you." She also encourages older women to continue screening, even after they age out of free mammograms.

Around 350 women aged 70 to 74 are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in New Zealand. The risk at 70 is actually slightly higher than at 50, and stays fairly high into older age.

Aspros continues getting mammograms and paying for them herself because she knows their value. Her message to women everywhere breaks through decades of awkwardness around the topic.

"It shouldn't be a taboo subject," she says. "I mean for goodness sake, they're only boobs. Half the population has them."

One in 10 New Zealand women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime, but Aspros proves early detection changes everything.