Lisa Echols

Over the last 30 years, researches have documented a widening survival divide between black and white women with breast cancer.  Three African American women share their stories.

Over the past 30 years, researchers have found a widening survival divide between black and white women diagnosed with breast cancer. Three African American women share their stories.

The women behind The Takeaway's series "Under Her Skin: Living With Breast Cancer" reflect on their diagnoses, the prognoses and how they've coped.

The Takeaway's six-month-long audio storytelling series, "Under Her Skin: Living With Breast Cancer," will conclude with the end of 2014.

The three women of The Takeaway's series "Under Her Skin: Living With Breast Cancer" bring us up to date on their journeys.

From $5 co-pays to $38,000 operations, the costs of living with and treating breast cancer vary widely, and it's left many patients and their families strapped and confused.

For the three women featured in "Under Her Skin: Living With Breast Cancer," there has been no pause, and no intermission between Act I and Act II. Life with cancer continues.

What do you see when cancer becomes a mirror for a lifetime of self-examination, self-scrutiny and self-reflection? We check in with the three women profiled in “Under Her Skin.”

African-American women with a breast cancer diagnosis face particularly difficult odds. Three black women fighting the disease document their experiences through audio diaries.

Lisa Echols lives and works in Memphis, where the mortality rate for black women with breast cancer is twice that of white women. 

Lisa Echols is 46-years-old. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2013 after doctors spotted an abnormality in her annual mammogram. She says she is a wife, mother and fri...