Wake County woman encourages self breast exams in 'Feeling Myself' video

WAKE COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Wake County woman is trying to spread awareness about breast cancer.

Shonicia Jones was just diagnosed last month but she believes by doing constant breast exams, she was able to catch it early.

"I had a normal mammogram in January of 2019 so that underscores how important it is because just six months later, I began to feel a lump and some women would've waited until the next year for their exam," Jones said.

In response, she put out a video called "Feeling Myself Breast Cancer Awareness" in response that uses the 2014 hit by Nicki Minaj and Beyonce.

"We wanted something catchy, we wanted something that would resonate and it seems that this really did resonate with all demographics," Jones said. "So many women have reached out to me that they weren't doing self exams."

She works in the Durham County Detention Center full time but is also registered nurse and runs a healthcare consulting and training business with her daughter in Raleigh called "Legacy U."

"It's a play on words because we want women to feel themselves as in feeling good about their skin they're in but we also want them to feel themselves physically as in do your self-exams," she said.

Shonicia has had her first round of chemotherapy and said she "came through it" fine. So far, the video has nearly 23,000 views on Facebook.