MEMPHIS FIT
Surviving Chemo While Pregnant & Her Next Challenge
By Colleen May Photo by Tindall Stephens
Liz Brock, 43, is a mom of three and seven years cancer free. This October, she’s participating in her first ever bikini competition at the 2021 Nashville Night of Champions in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Ever since she was a little girl, Liz has loved to be the center of attention. Getting to strut across a competition stage in front of a table of judges wearing nothing but five-inch heels and a bikini isn’t entirely out of her comfort zone. The journey itself has been far from easy, however. Most days, Liz says training can feel like a full-time job. But it’s nothing her body can’t handle given what she’s already faced in the past.
Fighting for Her “Warrior Princess” When Liz located a small lump underneath her breast in June 2013, she knew it was time to get checked. She has an extensive family history of breast cancer, and sure enough, the biopsy came back positive. The doctors at the Memphis West Cancer Center diagnosed Liz with stage zero breast cancer. A few days later, she and her husband found out they were pregnant with their second child. Liz was told that treatment would involve terminating the pregnancy first, but that wasn’t an option for her. Instead, a team of doctors joined heads to figure out the safest way for her to carry to term while killing all potential cancer cells in the process. “We waited until I was 16 weeks pregnant…when all the organs had formed,” she recalls. “We did a lumpectomy, and then a couple months later, I began chemotherapy. I had four rounds of chemo and lost all my hair. It was crazy. I was walking around… this big, bald pregnant woman. [I] got a lot of weird looks.”
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When April 2014 rolled around, Sammie Kate Brock came into the world healthier than ever. “We have nicknamed her our little warrior
