Mindi Miller and her mother Sharon West share the family's historical propensity for breast cancer. This photo appeared in the Oct. 20, 1972, edition of the East Oregonian.

100 years ago

An epidemic has hit the hog herds in this community and several breeders have had heavy losses. C.P. Adams, who won the state championship with his hogs at the Salem fair and annexed nine first prizes, said yesterday that already 16 of his best had died and that he feared to lose his entire herd of more than 30 pigs. Local veterinarians, who have examined the animals, declare that they are not familiar with the disease. Some have pronounced it “flu.” There was an early report circulated that cholera had broken out but hog men who are acquainted with that disease say that the sickness that is killing their hogs now is not cholera.

50 years ago

Mrs. Dick Piper, Milton-Freewater, is one of a kind. She’s the only non-professional Oregonian chosen to attend a conference on the international farm youth exchange program in Chevy Chase, Md., next week.

Mrs. Piper and Lois Rebman, extension specialist in 4-H youth development, will leave Oregon Saturday for a week to study the program and learn new suggestions for financing and carrying out the program in Oregon.

25 years ago

Sharon West knows that mammograms, even routine ones, don’t detect all breast cancers.

Since age 35 the 55-year-old West, who has family history of breast cancer, had faithfully pursued yearly mammograms and physicals. “My paternal grandmother died of breast cancer in her mid-40s,” West said.

Five years ago, a doctor located a lump in her breast during a routine exam. A follow-up mammogram was scheduled, but the mammogram failed to detect the lump. However, both West and her physician could feel the lump.

“It was hard and hurt me to lay on it,” West said.

Although the lump was first detected in October, 1992, West did not have the lump removed until the March, 1993.