Council Member Vanessa Fuentes announced Tuesday she is battling breast cancer.<\/p>\n
Fuentes, who has been on parental leave since May 4, said in a statement that she was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer at 37 weeks pregnant. Fuentes said she felt a lump in her breast and immediately consulted with her doctor. <\/p>\n
\u201cBy acting quickly, we caught the cancer before it spread,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so important to trust your body. If something feels off, get it checked. Early detection saves lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fuentes said her daughter Vivienne was delivered safely on May 5 and is “healthy and growing fast!” <\/p>\n
She encouraged women to “be proactive with their health” and consider getting a mammogram before the recommended age of 40.<\/p>\n
Within 36 hours of delivering her daughter, Fuentes said she began cancer treatment. She said she will continue to receive medical care while resuming her duties on the Austin City Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cI now join the fight against cancer, standing shoulder to shoulder with the millions of people who show up to work, raise their families, and serve their communities while fighting this disease every single day,\u201d Fuentes said. \u201cThis diagnosis hasn\u2019t changed who I am or what I\u2019m committed to. If anything, it\u2019s reinforced why the work we do together matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fuentes returns amidst the city\u2019s budget planning cycle <\/a>and ahead of major decisions about a bond election<\/a>, the Dog\u2019s Head development<\/a> and city council elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Council Member Vanessa Fuentes announced Tuesday she is battling breast cancer. Fuentes, who has been on parental leave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,1501,1823,134,133,18771,134750],"class_list":["post-381547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-city-council","tag-austin-city-hall","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-vanessa-fuentes","tag-vanessa-fuentes-cancer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}