By Brandon Henry
AFRO Intern
For Lisa Johnson, Valerie Fraling and Tiffany Ann Wingate, breast cancer awareness isn’t just a phrase made up of buzzwords– it’s a reminder of their battles with breast cancer.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that “Black people have a lower overall 5-year cancer survival rate than White people.” The CDC also notes that “Black people are more likely than White people to be diagnosed with female breast, lung, and colorectal cancers at a late stage.”
Lisa Johnson’s journey with breast cancer began in 2015, when she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.
She recalls feeling something that “was not a lump,” and also experienced pain whenever she laid on her right side.
After being diagnosed, she said her first feeling was “immediate grief.”
“I felt as if my world was gonna come crashing down,” said Johnson.
Johnson knew she could not stay in a negative mindset.
“I knew that when people hear the word cancer, the first thing they think is death, they think you’re gonna die,” she said.
She opted to have a single mastectomy because the breast cancer was only found on her right side. She had mastectomy reconstruction surgery and went through six rounds of surgery, but three days after her first chemotherapy treatment complications began.
“I died four times and kept coming back,” said Johnson. “They put the defibrillator on me. I kept coming back.”
Doctors were amazed that she kept coming back to life. They told her each time a defibrillator was used on her, she woke up saying “I shall live and not die!”
Once she was stable, she had breast reconstruction surgery and received a breast implant. After taking pills for five years, Johnson thought her journey had ended.
But in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she developed a cough. After blood work and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans, doctors were concerned. The numbers for the tumor markers in her body were alarming.
In July of 2020, Johnson’s PET scan indicated that the cancer had metastasized to her lungs and bones. She was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.
“When I heard stage four…I knew for sure, it was the end. Being faced with my mortality almost took me out, but I had to collect myself,” said Johnson. “ remember that the same God who I declared was going to heal me in 2015 the same God in 2020.”
Doctors also discovered a tumor on Johnson’s brain because the cancer had also metastasized to her brain.
Still, she preserved.
Five years later, Johnson’s treatment continues. She takes a monthly oral chemotherapy pill, along with injections.
Valerie Fraling
Valerie Fraling’s journey with cancer began in 2004. She was 55 years old.
Fraling had her annual mammogram, and after, she said she just didn’t feel right. A couple weeks later, she received a letter informing her that she needed to go and have the screening redone.
Fraling said her breast was bruised, and “looked like an eggplant.” Upon retaking the mammogram, Fraling heard a female doctor say “oh yeah, it’s cancer. The four words rocked her to her core.
Not too long after, Fraling’s sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., had a golf tournament. At the event, she spoke to a friend and he suggested that she come to his office and get examined.
There, she found out that while her cancer was still in the beginning stage, it was recommended that she have a total mastectomy.
She had the surgery on Nov. 18, 2004. After, she saw a plastic surgeon to help reconstruct her breast.
Fraling’s recovery from the mastectomy went well, but the reconstruction surgery led to complications. Her body kept rejecting the cup.
Fraling was also dealing with loneliness and grief, as her husband passed away three years before her breast cancer battle.
Fraling, now 76, said that her friends and family rallied around her, making the recovery process a lot easier to handle. She has been living cancer-free ever since.
Tiffany Ann Wingate
Tiffany Ann Wingate’s journey began in 2018 after a shower. A pain in her right shoulder had been bothering her for a couple weeks.
One day she tried to trace where the pain was coming from, and saw a “bird sized egg” on the outer part of her right breast.
At the time, Wingate worked in interventional radiology, so when she found the lump she requested help right away. After a biopsy, she was diagnosed with triple negative stage-3 breast cancer.
According to the American Cancer Society, “Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive type of invasive breast cancer. TNBC differs from other types of invasive breast cancer in that it tends to grow and spread faster, has fewer treatment options, and tends to have a worse prognosis (outlook).”
ACS reports that the name, “triple-negative breast cancer, refers to the fact that the cancer cells don’t have estrogen or progesterone receptors (ER or PR) and also don’t have too much of the HER2 protein. (The cells test “negative” on all 3 tests.)”
Wingate’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer 20 years ago, and one of Wingate’s older siblings had passed due to cancer. Her sister initially had breast cancer, which metastasized to her lungs. Wingate had to bury her sister after she lost her lung cancer battle.
“ was a shock because we were unaware that she had even had cancer,” said Wingate.
Still, throughout Wingate’s fight, she said it was never a time where she felt discouraged or that she’d be unsuccessful.
After being diagnosed the day after Christmas in 2018, Wingate had her surgery in April 2019, but the cancer quickly returned, so she had to have surgery again in July of 2019.
Wingate says through the rough times, she still made an effort to live each day.
“I would wake up when all my hair was gone. I would get up when my eyebrows were going. I began to just draw eyebrows on my face,” said Wingate. “ how to do that, and put on some lipgloss just to show up for the day for me to make myself feel a little bit better, even if no one was coming over.”
“I’m a fighter,” she says. “Giving up was never an option for me.”