Making Strides: Twin sisters urge screenings after each beat breast cancer twice

(WPVI) - Cooper River Park in Pennsauken will be a sea of pink on Sunday, October 20th for this year's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk.

For a pair of South Jersey women, fighting cancer has become a real "sister act."

"We grew up in a very competitive family," Barbara Carlson remembers. "We were always back and forth."

But as adults, twins Barbara Carlson and Jeannie Soncrant are each other's best support. Last month, they walked an ancient pilgrimage trail in Spain.

Each has overcome breast cancer twice, going back to the 1990s, when Barbara was the 30-year-old mom of a toddler.

"I found the lump, and it was just a random thing. It was already 2.2 centimeters," she recalls.

"Big shock," Jeannie notes of how the news changed their lives. "Then the microscope gets turned on me, because we are identical twins."

So Jeannie got frequent screenings, which caught her first cancer at Stage 0 in 2012.

By then, testing for the BRCA genetic mutations was widely available, so the sisters got tested.

"Then it's like, oh, BRCA negative - whew, I'm fine, right?" she says, remembering her relief at the time.

As COVID shut down the world in 2020, and Barbara was diagnosed again, they discovered genetics were indeed at work.

"We both have some mutations called CHEK-2 and ATM. One mutation from our mom, one mutation from our dad," says Jeannie.

The two mutations raise the risk of nearly a dozen cancers:

"Prostate, testicular, I think ovarian, bladder, I think colon," Jeannie says says, ticking them off.

Pancreatic and liver cancer, too. And CHEK2 and ATM also affect men.

The twins lost their dad to prostate cancer, and a brother has had both testicular and breast cancer.

Barbara says knowing their genetic status has an upside.

"We get screened a lot. So now, if something goes wrong, we have the best and brightest doctors on this," she explains.

The twins are now dedicated to raising awareness of ALL cancers.

"Whether or not a person has a family history of breast cancer or other cancers, you need to do your regular screenings," Jeanne emphasizes. "Get your screenings, don't avoid your screenings, whatever it is."

"It's okay to be fearful, but don't let the fear consume you to the point of inaction," Barbara adds.

You can join the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk on Sunday, October 20th at Jack Curtis Stadium in Cooper River Park in Pennsauken, New Jersey.

Registration and other events start at 8:30 a.m. and if you can't walk, you can donate to the teams.