For many of the estimated 180,000 women whose doctors will tell them they have breast cancer this year, the diagnosis will no doubt come as a shock.

A fifth-grade student recently underwent a mastectomy after a cancer diagnosis.But for the parents of 10-year-old Hannah Powell-Auslam of Fullerton, Calif., who learned in early April that their daughter had breast cancer, the news was particularly hard to swallow.

"It should be the furthest thing from your mind," Hannah's mother Carrie Auslam told reporters from KCAL-TV in Los Angeles. "Ten-year-olds don't get breast cancer."

For Hannah, the realization that she would have to deal with a disease normally associated with women many times her age was a difficult one to take.

"I told my mom, I just wanna be a normal kid," she told reporters. "I want to go back to school, play sports, hang out with my friends. So I started crying."

According to the family Web site documenting Hannah's fight against her cancer, Hannah underwent surgery to remove her breast on May 7, and she will likely progress to chemotherapy to minimize the chances that the cancer will spread or recur.

my prayers are with her and her family....

That's just too sad to swallow. The girl's womanhood was cut off like that. But at least she has her life and family to support her.

The thing that surprises me is that most folks think that brest cancer only affects women.........men and children can also get it obviously from this article

It is sad that the poor thing had to go through it