Governor signs 'Inflammatory Breast Cancer Awareness' proclamation

What women don't know about cancer can kill them.

Especially when it comes to the most deadly form of breast cancer: Inflammatory Breast Cancer. In a series of reports, KOMO 4 brought international attention to IBC.

Now, the governor is helping spread the word.

"You were the inspiration, Phil! " Governor Chris Gregoire said Tuesday as she signs a proclamation declaring October "Inflammatory Breast Cancer Awareness Month" in our state.

The governor, a breast cancer survivor, is betting that most of us don't know there's more than one kind of breast cancer. She was happy to honor Phil Willingham's plea to warn others.

"My objective is to have every woman and doctor in America know about this disease," says Willingham. The Carnation man is starting with the state of Washington. He's been on a one-man crusade to warn as many women as will listen.

He said it's a warning his wife never got before she was diagnosed with IBC.

"Thank you KOMO and thank you Phil for your tremendous leadership," Gregoire said moments after signing the proclamation. "This is a form of breast cancer hard to detect and diagnosis. The only way to get ourselves to address this is if we get the message out."

Phil's wife, Marilyn was also misdiagnosed. "She smiled and took a breath and went to sleep," says Willingham.

He was with Marilyn when she died, just two weeks before Christmas.

We uncovered countless cases across the country of women who told KOMO 4 their doctors misdiagnosed IBC for a breast infection or a bug bite.

Typical IBC symptoms can include rapid increase in breast size, redness, skin hot to the touch and itchy, and thickened breast tissue. The National Cancer Institute says IBC accounts for one to five percent of all breast cancer in the U.S.

And IBC usually attacks without a detectable lump and a mammogram rarely finds it.

"It's something more than a proclamation, it's a cause," said Willingham, who always has a stash of brochures about IBC handy.

Tina Turck never heard of IBC until she got it. Last August she warned other women in a KOMO 4 Special report. She died almost one year to the day after that broadcast.

She was only 37 when she was diagnosed -- three years younger than the recommended age to start mammograms.

"If I heard of it prior, I probably would have been more suspect that something was wrong," said Tina Turck in an interview last year.

With IBC Awareness Month in Washington, now you know.

Cancer experts tell us the best way to detect Inflammatory Breast Cancer is with a biopsy.