IN JAMAICA (VERY INSPIRING): How Michelle Watkis Robinson beat breast cancer....For strength, she relied on her mother, now deceased, who was battling brain cancer at the time....."I don't overindulge. Though I love my pork and my pork skin, I eat a lot of green, leafy vegetables to get my body in an alkaline state. I drink a lot of alkaline water and green juice. Also, I drink guinea hen weed tea, prepared in a wine-based solution and that is very potent,"

By KIMBERLEY HIBBERT  Monday, October 27, 2014  

A  trip to Texas in 2010 for a wedding ended up changing Michelle Watkis Robinson's life. She was conducting a random breast self-examination when she found a lump.

Michelle Watkis Robinson
(PHOTO: KARL MCLARTY)

"I have a thing where I say anything foreign in my body has to come out, so I went to see my doctor when I returned to Jamaica," she said.

She was told to do a mammogram, which confirmed the presence of a suspicious growth, initially misdiagnosed as benign.

"I told them to just remove it," she said.

But things took a turn when Watkis Robinson was told she also had to do a pregnancy test before any procedure could be conducted. She thought of the request as ludicrous, but followed protocol.

"Lo and behold, I was pregnant. I couldn't do anything and I couldn't be exposed to radiation. I was told to ride it out and after the baby I could have it removed," she said.

By the time she was six months pregnant, Watkis Robinson said the lump grew to the size of a golf ball.

"I was very concerned and when the baby was born I was willing to not breastfeed my daughter Marissa, but I was told the lump was benign and what I had was an infected breast duct so I should continue breastfeeding. However, breastfeeding was painful and after four months I had to stop."

She decided on another biopsy, and just by glimpsing the slides with the naked eye, the doctor was able to determine that something was indeed wrong -- the lump wasn't benign. more