Former French first lady Carla Bruni revealed Wednesday in an Instagram post that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019, and urged her followers to get regular mammograms, like she had. She credited the exam with helping her avoid the need for a mastectomy.

Bruni shared a video of herself holding up a series of placards telling the story of her breast cancer journey in French, then a text card with the English translation and another with the full French text in the three-slide carousel post.

“I was lucky: my cancer was not yet aggressive,” part of the English translation reads. “Why wasn’t it aggressive? Because it didn’t have time to become aggressive.”

Bruni said that she has been rigorous about her annual mammograms, getting them on the same date.

“If I hadn’t done one every year, I wouldn’t have a left breast today,” she wrote.

She further explained that she thought it was “repugnant” to share her diagnosis for her own means, which led to hesitation, but that she wanted to deliver a “fundamental message” to women.

“Do your mammograms. Your lives depend on it,” she wrote.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month in the U.S., and Octobre Rose (Pink October) in France, the equivalent.

Bruni, 55, is the wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, who was the president of France from 2007 to 2012. She’s also a musician and model, and picked up her singing career and toured again after her husband’s term ended.

Since leaving office, Sarkozy has been embroiled in legal troubles for claims of corruption and is currently serving a prison sentence at home with an electronic bracelet. One accusation against him alleges that Sarkozy took Russian funds for influence while working as a consultant in 2019, the year Bruni was diagnosed.