Strength, love and resilience are themes displayed through Simone Green’s latest music project, “Black Queen,” and they are qualities she herself possesses as a two-time breast cancer survivor.

READ: Simone Green’s ‘Black Queen’ Is a Story of Music, Survival, Love and Legacy

2026 marks 10 years since Green’s original diagnosis, and she credits early detection as the key to her survival.

“All women over 40, if you love a woman over 40, if you are friends with a woman over 40, encourage her to get her mammogram every single year because it will definitely save her life or someone else’s,” Green said.

Green shared that she did not have a history of breast cancer in her family, but because of early detection, the cancer was caught before it metastasized.

She underwent 30 rounds of radiation the first time, with her last round taking place on Halloween in 2016. However, the cancer came back and Green made the decision to undergo a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

Hear her full story here.

“You need to know what kind of health issues they [family] have to see if you’re potentially at risk, to potentially see if you have the BRCA gene, which is the gene that carries the breast cancer in a lot of patients,” Green said.

While emphasizing the importance of yearly exams, Green acknowledges that finances and related issues bar a number of women from being able to get the exams. She praised advocacy groups and said she is starting one herself to help “so many women, especially women of color who are not getting the health care that they need and anything that I can do to bridge that gap, I will do.”