'I survived breast cancer': prominent women tell how they triumphed over the disease

Ebony, Oct, 2004 by Joy Bennett Kinnon

WHAT happens when it seems that fate has played a cruel joke and a woman's very life can be in question? What do you do when an intimate part of your body becomes host to an assassin, a foreign element assigned to debilitate, maim or even kill?

You survive and even thrive. That's the testimony of the four people featured in this article: Desiree Rogers, president of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas in Chicago; BET Foundation Executive Director Darlene Nipper; the Rev. Dr. Claudette Anderson Copeland, pastor of New Creation Christian Fellowship Church in San Antonio; and Marilyn (Francine) Braxton, controller of Chinagraph, a commercial editing/production company in New York City.

For these brave women, breast cancer was not an end, but a platform for better health and for higher career and personal success. The disease didn't stop them. In fact, two of these women were later promoted to top positions in corporate America, one while she was fighting the disease, the other after fighting the disease. The other survivors are at the top of their games in their careers since battling breast cancer.

The stories of these four women, two who nearly died, don't focus on the dying, they focus on surviving. And their inspirational stories of hope and courage will encourage anyone coping with breast cancer in themselves or in a loved one.

DESIREE ROGERS

PRESIDENT, PEOPLES GAS AND NORTH SHORE GAS, CHICAGO.

No one was more surprised than I was with the discovery that I had breast cancer. I thought I had covered my bases.

I had visited the doctor regularly, and there was no history of breast cancer in my family. Like so many women, I learned too late that there is no family indicator for most breast cancer patients.

Although I had annual checkups, I found a lump between mammogram visits in March 2003. I was lucky--my cancer was detected at an early stage. I said then, and continue to state, that it is extremely important for women of all ages to examine their own breasts between annual mammograms. Some women think that nothing bad can happen in a year. But things can go wrong in a week or a month, and we must constantly be on the alert.

As a supporter of the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, I have found other survivors can provide enormous insight. The organization offers a 24/7 hotline.

There are a number of things I learned from my experience. A critical point, often neglected, is that nutrition is an important element in the prevention and healing process. I counsel women to eat organic fruits and vegetables. It is also a good idea to check the packaging to see if the food is preservative free. Many times we think we are eating healthy, and we're not.

I also emphasize exercise. Exercise keeps the body fit and reduces stress. Black women tend to avoid exercise because we are worried about our appearance. Or we exercise around hair appointments. We must commit ourselves to a regular physical fitness program.

I also now understand how important it is to put you first. Black women tend to take care of everybody else and then take care of themselves--if at all. Cancer reminds you that you need to take care of yourself first. After I became ill, getting well became my priority.

Through this experience, I have become an active participant with the growing number of women who are leading the national movement for a more proactive approach to breast cancer. I tell women that if breast cancer happens, it's not the end of the world. With early detection your ability to bounce back is great, and the options available allow you to get your life back together sooner.

It helps the healing process to have a positive attitude and to get the best possible care. Ask questions, get second opinions and make yourself an informed participant in the process of your own healing. Don't hide. Talk about your problem. Talk to other women. At Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, we encourage women who have survived the disease to talk to other women.

It's important, finally, not to be afraid. If you find a lump, get moving. Time is crucial.

I know.

I've been there.

And today, I'm cancer-free and healthier than I was before.

THE REV. DR. CLAUDETTE ANDERSON COPELAND

PASTOR and CO-FOUNDER OF THE NEW CREATION CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP CHURCH, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

There's a whole group of us out here who have not just survived breast cancer--we have thrived because of breast cancer. For some of us, breast cancer was a gift to our own unconscious living. Certainly we don't believe that it is God's perfect will that sickness and disease ravage us, but for some who have done this dance with cancer, the disease was a way of shaking loose everything that was not absolutely necessary and leaving us with the very best of what it means to be alive.

When I was diagnosed Christmas 1990, as a preacher and particularly a Pentecostal-type preacher whose world was censored and buttoned-down about things concerning the body, I was in an environment where few voices were being honest about anything much that was physical.