Indigenous women continue to face barriers to breast cancer care, report finds [Video]

Nicole Hallingstad credits her cat, Rudy, with finding her breast cancer.

Despite an unremarkable mammogram screening just seven months earlier, the 42-year-old knew something was wrong when Rudy kept pawing at something on the right side of her chest.

Hallingstad had another mammogram, which this time found a golf-ball-sized tumor in her breast that she said was from a fast-growing form of breast cancer.

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After surgery, she needed both radiation and chemotherapy – but neither were available where she lived.

Hallingstad faced a difficult decision. Her options were to travel more than 1,000 miles once a month for chemotherapy and then relocate for six weeks of radiation treatment, or move to another state where she could get chemotherapy and radiation in one place. Hallingstad chose the latter.