5 Black Women with Breast Cancer Find Strength After Their Diagnosis - SELF

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Colden’s first two yearly mammograms were clear. On the third, there was a spot, but she was told by her doctor that things looked okay and it wasn’t cancer—she just had lumpy breasts.

“There’s this inner feeling you have,” she says. “Something was inside me saying that’s not right.” Her sister’s doctor had told her the exact same thing, but Colden was so happy to hear she didn’t have cancer, she didn’t follow up.

A year later, she went back for a mammogram, and that’s when her doctors found it: Stage 0 breast cancer, meaning only abnormal cells had been found.⁶ She was 42. “Now, looking back, I always tell women that if something doesn’t feel right, get a second opinion.”

Despite the diagnosis, Colden remained calm. “I’m a religious person,” she says. “In my prayer, I said ‘Lord, if you will be my pilot on this journey, I’ll be your copilot.’” She immediately felt a sense of peace.

After her recovery, she decided to share that calming presence with other women going through breast cancer at a support group through Roswell Park Cancer Center, where she had treatment. “I say, it’s going to be a long road. If you don’t want to travel it alone, I’m right there with you.”

And she means it. Sometimes that involves talking with someone at 3 a.m. when the pain from chemotherapy hits. Other times it means sending food delivery boxes to the homes of people with breast cancer who can’t muster the strength to leave. “My sister did a lot of support work before she got really sick,” she says. “This is her vision.”

5. “I quit my life and started a new one as an advocate.”

Ricki Fairley, 65, was in the security line at the airport for a work trip when she got a call from her doctor. They’d found a peanut-like lump under her nipple that turned out to be cancer.

Fairley, who was 55 at the time, said “I don’t have time for this right now. I’ll call you when I get to my destination.” A couple days later, she found out she had Stage 3A triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), and it was really aggressive. TNBC has fewer targeted therapy treatment options, often spreads beyond the breast, and is more likely to recur.⁷ Black women have nearly three times the risk of triple negative breast cancer⁸.

Her diagnosis woke her up. “It made me realize that I needed to get all of the ‘cancers’ out of my life.” During treatment that first year, which involved a double mastectomy, aggressive chemotherapy, and radiation, she quit her job and started her own company. Then she filed for divorce and, later, sold her house. “I quit my life and started a new one, and changed everything,” she says. “I had to learn that my peace is non-negotiable. I really think that stress caused my breast cancer.”

A year later, her life changed again. She was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, and was told she had two years to live. After finding out her current doctor had only treated two previous cases of TNBC, and both women had died in eight months, she found a new doctor, who was well-versed in current research and treatments for TNBC. She beat cancer a second time. “I remember sitting at my daughter’s graduation thinking ‘OK, I made it. What’s next for me?’”

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5 Black Women with Breast Cancer Find Strength After Their Diagnosis - SELF
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