October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, and R&B singer and model

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, and R&B singer and model Cassie is raising awareness about the disease that plagued both her mother and grandmother.

Cassie was scared the disease was hereditary; after all, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer twice – the first time being when Cassie was only 7 – and her grandmother had also battled the disease. “I gave myself an examination and I thought that I had a lump. I went and got it checked and it turned out to be nothing.” In addition to being checked, the singer also got genetic testing to make sure she didn’t carry the gene for breast cancer. Luckily, she doesn’t.

Now Cassie is using her celebrity to raise awareness about the disease. She educates women about the importance of self-examination and mammograms, a low-dose X-ray of the breast that accurately diagnoses 90 percent of breast cancer cases. “I encourage everybody to get checked, because you never know,” said Cassie.