After Jessica Baladad was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after turning 33 years old, she made the decision to take urgency in the healthcare of women. 

“I got cancer after doing a self exam and the pandemic was happening and all of these factors, that inspired me to create the app,” Baladad said. “That was my pandemic project.”

Baladad curated “Feel For Your Life,” an app that guides women how to perform at-home breast exams to detect breast cancer. The app officially launched in September 2021. 

“It’s a tool and a digital resource that shows women or anyone with breasts how to perform self breast exams and it lets you track and monitor your changes and progress that you make,” Baladad said. 

Baladad began performing self exams after turning 18 when she had to have a lumpectomy. Since then, she has created a habit of performing self exams and it was a habit that saved her life. 

“According to federal standards, screenings for breast cancer start at 40, and I would be dead right now if I waited to get screened when I was 40,” Baladad said. 

The inspiration for the app sparked when women were missing their annual screenings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“During the pandemic, women were missing their screenings,” Baladad said. “1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.”

Baladad is completely self taught in app curation and took the challenge of protecting the lives of women. 

“This practice saved my life at 33 years old and women are missing their screenings because of the pandemic,” Baladad said. “I needed to get the word out about this and tell women how to do self exams and potentially save their lives just by being comfortable with touching themselves.”

The app walks women through how to perform self breast exams and provides additional resources. The app has advocacy resources, information about different types of screenings, how to know your breast density, understanding your genetics, how to take risk reducing measures, as well as mental health resources for what to do if a user locates a lump. 

“There is a technology inside the app that whenever you start tracking and monitoring your progress it keeps up with those changes that the user can choose to put in,” Baladad said. “It all stays in the app and then your results are also emailed to you.”

Baladad has experienced incredible success with “Feel For Your Life” as users reach out to her with their testimony. 

“I’m hearing from women all the time that are now feeling more comfortable with their bodies, they feel confident in a self exam routine, they’re communicating with their medical providers about their breast health,” Baladad said, “and they’re taking care of other parts of their gynecologic health and having open conversations with their medical providers.”

“Feel For Your Life” has also helped women understand their preventative options and how to detect a recurrence of breast cancer. 

A breast cancer survivor contacted Baladad about her experience using the app and expressed how she was able to locate a recurrence in her chest wall. 

“It turned out to be cancer coming back, because she did a self exam after downloading my app,” Baladad said. “She now has more treatment options ahead of her that will preserve her life longer.”

Baladad has not only seen the app save lives, she has also seen it instill more confidence in women. 

“Women feel good about themselves and feel like they have options in a time where women feel like their medical options are being taken away from them,” Baladad said. 

Baladad has also transferred her passion into advocacy work and immersed herself into politics. 

Baladad wrote legislation for Tennessee called the “Feel for your life act,”  requiring high school students to learn about self breast exams, testicular exams and skin exams. She also spoke in Washington D.C. in front of members of Congress last summer about her story with breast cancer and the impact her app has made.

“Now that the app is taking off and doing as well as it is, I’m going to put more effort towards political advocacy,” Baladad said. 

Baladad has seen the app grow into more than her pandemic project and is touching the lives of women. 

“I can say that my app is saving lives,” Baladad said.

News Reporter Maggie Phelps can be reached at [email protected]