They say that the person who a man decides to marry is one of the more important decisions that a man will make in his life. That statement could not ring more true for X-Men star Tyler Mane.
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Mane is crediting his wife Renae for saving his life after his recent breast cancer diagnosis.
Mane Credits His Wife For Saving His Life
On his and his wife's new podcast, Mane AF, the movie star said that it was his wife's consistent urging him to go to the doctor. After he noticed that a lump had developed inside of his chest.
"I kept talking about it, 'I have this lump here still, and it's hard.' And she was very insistent because women are trained from a certain age that if they feel something in their breast area, go get it checked out," Mane said in a transcript obtained by Yahoo.
"I have to thank her," he said. "She saved my life by saying, 'Get in there and get tested.'"
Mane's Doctor Brushed Off Lump Initially
Breast cancer in men is rare. It accounts for less than 1% of all breast cancer cases. A man's lifetime risk of getting breast cancer is about 1 in 755. But rare does not equal impossible. While many people do not realize that men have breast tissue, everyone is born with a small amount of it, meaning anyone can develop the disease (Mayo Clinic). Still, even Mane's doctor didn't believe the lump to be malignant at first.
"To be honest, even my doctor said, 'Oh, it's probably nothing. It's probably just a lipoma,'" Mane continued. "And then, when I went in for the [surgery], he said, 'You probably want to get that removed, but it's probably nothing.' It's just dismissed so much that you have to be an advocate for your own body. And I'm just so thankful that she was an advocate for my body. Otherwise, it could have been a whole different story."
Now Mane wants to bring awareness to the situation. And urges other men, if something seems off, to go get it checked out immediately.
"This is a cancer that anyone can get," Mane added. "If you feel something different in your chest than the norm, you have to go get it checked out and tested. You have to insist on getting tested and checked. You have to be the best advocate for yourself."
