Tina Knowles was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.
The 71-year-old matriarch - who is the mother of Beyonce and Solange Knowles - had missed a routine mammogram and was stunned when doctors discovered stage 1 breast cancer in her left breast last July, shortly after she and the 'Texas Hold 'Em' hitmaker had launched their Cecred hair care line.
She told People magazine: In fact, Knowles herself had missed getting her scheduled mammogram. "I forgot that I didn't go to get my test two years before I thought I had because Covid came and they called me and cancelled me and they said, we'll call you when we start testing again. And I just thought I had done it. So you cannot play around with that.
"It's important not to slack on your mammograms."
Tina underwent surgery to remove the tumour and had a breast reduction at the same time and she is now doing well.
She said: “I’m doing great. Cancer-free and incredibly blessed that God allowed me to find it early.
"I’m healthier, eating better, I lost weight."
Tina hopes to serve as an inspiration to other women, as well as encouraging them to have regular breast screenings when invited.
She said: "I didn't know that there was a stage 0. I could have caught this at stage 0 if I had not missed my mammogram.
"I want to show people you can go through that and still be fly. I want to give people hope. What scares me now is not making the best of every day that I have left in this life."
Tina has shared her story in her new memoir 'Matriarch', though she was hesitant about doing so.
She said: "I struggled with whether I would share that journey [in the book] because I'm very private. But I decided to share it because I think it's a lot of lessons in it for other women.
"And I think as women, sometimes we get so busy and we get so wrapped up and running around, but you must go get your test. Because if I had not gotten my test early, I mean, I shudder to think what could have happened to me."
In the book, Tina detailed how her daughters took the news.
She wrote: "[Beyonce] took it well, staying positive, and I could already feel her mind racing, focusing on this as a task to tackle with precision.
"[Solange said] 'Mom, we are going to take care of this.' "
With the pair, along with Kelly Rowland and her niece Angie Beyince by her side, Tina knew she was well supported.
She wrote: “My girls became my team.”
Tina wasn't found to have breast cancer genes, though her ex-husband, Beyonce and Solange's dad Mathew Knowles, has previously overcome stage 1 breast cancer too and said he has the BRCA2 gene mutation, which increases the risk of the disease.
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