Former Rep. Jackie Speier diagnosed with breast cancer

Former Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) has been diagnosed with breast cancer, she announced in a social media post.

“I have personal news that I want to share with you because we can all learn from it. I just became one of the 300,000 women per year who are diagnosed with breast cancer,” Speier said in her post Thursday on social platform X. “The good news is that it was discovered early and I had a successful lumpectomy on Tuesday.”

Speier, who left the House in early 2023, said in another post that she had “a mammogram in June of 2023 and was scheduled for another last month. “I almost didn’t go because of summer activities,” she continued. “Thank goodness I didn’t cancel.”

“The lesson here is, please be diligent about your own screenings and don’t skip them,” Speier said in another post.

Speier announced that she would not run for reelection in the 2022 cycle, which at the time was expected to be a difficult election for House Democrats. She described it as “time for me to come home” and “to be more than a weekend wife, mother and friend.” She served in the lower chamber for nearly 15 years.

Speier is also a survivor of the 1978 Jonestown massacre, having been shot five times when she was an aide to former Rep. Leo Ryan (D-Calif.), who died in the massacre.