Breast Cancer Awareness Month

This month we honor the strength of women who have fought and are still fighting breast cancer by sharing the stories of a few beautiful and brave souls.

Kaye Jackson

Kaye was a recently-divorced single mom in a town without family, so she was thankful for support from support groups, kind neighbors, co-workers, and complete strangers—including an Uber driver who made sure she made it inside her home safely after feeling ill on her way home from chemotherapy. She was determined to fight and survive despite the odds stacked up against her.

After a while of going through treatment, Kaye felt that the fear of dying was consuming her, then she received some valuable advice from her oncologist: focus on things that make you happy. For her, that meant karaoke and wine. That is when she discovered her love for wine and her baby, The Random Whine, was born. Building this wine company was the distraction she needed and gave her another reason to continue fighting.

April 15, 2022, was Kaye’s three-year anniversary of being cancer free. While on this journey, she managed to find love again and remarried in 2021. Currently, she still pours into her wine company and tries to always see her glass as half full.

Dr. Cree Scott

In 2014, Dr. Cree Scott relocated to Atlanta with her husband and three-year-old daughter. She was roughhousing with her daughter when she was accidentally kicked in the chest and the pain caused her to rub her breasts. It was at that moment she felt the lump. Cree was only 38 years old at the time, so she doubt- ed it was anything to be concerned about. Nevertheless, she attempted to find a doctor to examine her. As a new resident of Atlanta, she didn’t have a doctor and had a difficult time finding one that could see her right away. Finally, she went to Planned Parenthood where she was referred for a mammogram. After a series of tests and what felt like years, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Cree decided to get a bilateral mastectomy, although only one breast was affected, with hopes of preventing it from coming back in the other breast. After four months of chemotherapy, she underwent breast reconstruction surgery and ran into complications which took three more surgeries to correct.

This took a toll on her mental health, so Cree turned to her faith. Prayers, meditation, and manifestation played a major role in providing the hope she needed to come out at the other end of this dreadful disease. Additionally, she credits her ability to get through it all to the love and support of her mother and husband, as well as focusing on her well-being. Cree hikes Kennesaw Mountain at least three times per week, which has obvious physical benefits, but it also helps clear her mind.

Thankfully, Cree has been in remission for seven years. As a licensed clinical psychologist, she runs Serenity Psychological Health & Well-being, a firm providing employers with resources for employee team building, coaching, and training. She wholeheartedly believes in the importance of taking care of your well-being, personally and professionally. This journey has certainly reinforced that for her.

Dayna Farris-Fisher

After a routine mammogram came back with suspicious results in 2013, Dayna Farris-Fisher had a follow-up screening that was deemed “normal” by a radiologist. About six months later, she began to feel pain, and after examining herself, she discovered a lump. Her husband’s COBRA Insurance had just ended, so she was without coverage. She spent about six weeks trying to navigate the medical system without insurance until she finally decided to go to Planned Parenthood. With that short delay, the tumor had almost doubled in size. Dayna underwent chemotherapy for about six months before going for a double mastectomy followed by radiation. Once she completed radiation, she opted to do breast reconstruction surgery.

Dayna has a BRCA (breast cancer) gene mutation, which puts her at a much higher risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. On her maternal side of the family, as far back as she can recall, there has been a woman in every generation that has died from cancer. Know this, she had her daughter tested for the BRCA mutation, and unfortunately, she also tested positive.

In 2016, Dayna was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and again underwent chemotherapy for about six months. Once she completed chemo, she received a full hysterectomy.

Fast forward to 2021, Dayna was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, which spread to her bones and is currently incurable. Her doctors expected if cancer did recur, it would recur in her ovaries, so they were a bit surprised to see it return to her breasts.

This dreadful disease will be around for much longer than we all would like, but it’s people like Dayna who, without a cure, continue to fight relentlessly that provide us all with a glimmer of hope that we, too, can fight whatever battles we’re fighting.