18
people
Donna Bragg
READY FOR HER
Close-Up
words Dwain Hebda IMAGEs courtesy Donna Bragg
DONNA BRAGG
knew that look the second the
doctor came back into the room. Bad news.
Now, sitting in the exam room in 2018, the marketing executive for the Arkansas Lottery and mother of two was about to hear the words no woman wants to hear. Although
“When your doctor says, ‘I need to talk to you,’ and gives
it wasn’t quite the diagnosis that she was expecting.
you a diagnosis,” she says. “Well, it’s scary.” “Lobular carcinoma in situ, LCIS,” she says, knowing you Donna was no shrinking violet – in her career as a television
don’t know what that is. After all, she hadn’t heard of the
news anchor, she’d covered the medical beat and also had
condition either, despite covering medical news for two
the chance to interview people in the throes of tragedy. For
decades. In fact, most of her health care providers were
years, viewers in Fort Smith, Arkansas, tuned in to catch the
short on details about it.
Alabama native with the electric smile deliver the news with a straightforward, honest style the audience appreciated.
“At the time, my doctor really couldn’t even explain it to me,” she says. “So, I came home and started doing some
“In terms of what made me good as a news anchor, that’s
research. I learned a lot about my diagnosis.”
really hard to define,” she says. “I think a lot of it is just voice and presence and confidence, which took me a long
What her own research didn’t tell her a follow-up with a
time to build. In the end, there’s something about your
breast specialist did. LCIS is a neoplasia, or collection of
credibility; it’s hard-won and easily lost.
abnormal cells, located in the lobules of the breast. It is extremely hard to detect except through biopsy; hers
“[As a news anchor] I’ve been told my gift is empathetic
was only revealed via routine protocols during a cosmetic
listening. I really listened to people and people just trusted
surgical procedure. And while she thus says unequivocally,
me easily, I guess. I’m honest and open and, I think, they
that “plastic surgery saved my life,” LCIS is not – repeat,
felt comfortable entrusting their stories to me.”
not – cancer.
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