Four years ago, Angela Britton of Poplar Creek went through two of the toughest times of her life -- the loss of her dad and dealing with her own personal battle with breast cancer. Four years later, she said she is “a tough old broad.”
“There’s a song, I forgot who it’s by but the lyrics are: ‘I’m a winner either way whether I win or whether I lose.’ And I lived by those words and I still do.”
Britton said she was so focused on taking care of her dad that she neglected herself.
and we do,” she said. “But, I told someone if that cancer was at the end of my nose then, it could’ve bit me and I still wouldn’t have known.”
She said she didn’t realize something was wrong until she noticed that her breast had changed shape, that’s when she went to see Dr. Katrina Poe. Britton calls Poe her guardian angel.
“I love her,” she said. “You don’t know what she did for the community. I could go for her for anything, and she would talk me off the ledge.”
Britton said Poe sent her to the Center for Breast Health and Imaging in Starkville. “She told me that she was sending me for a precaution and told me it could just be nothing.”
Britton said after she had her examination, there were other women in the waiting room with her --women who had their examinations after her.
“I noticed that women who were called after me were going before me, and I knew then something was wrong,” she said. Britton said the nurse told her the doctor wanted to speak with her.
“He told me they wanted to do a biopsy, and that was the worst pain I have ever been in, in my life, and I went through chemo and radiation. It’s the most God-awful pain there is. I was laying there begging her to stop,” Britton said through tears. “And, I asked her ‘Is it cancer?’ She probably shouldn’t have told me, but she said ‘Yeah, it is.’ And, I don’t remember anything else.”
Britton said she doesn’t remember leaving, she doesn’t remember taking Highway 82 back to Kilmichael. “I just knew I had to get to Dr. Poe,” she said.
Poe comforted her and called her mother to come and pick her up.
Britton said thoughts of who would take care of her kids, her mom and her students at Montgomery County High School went through her head.
“I planned my funeral,” she said. “I told my kids where I wanted to be buried, who I wanted to fix my hair, and they would tell me ‘Mama don’t say that. Don’t talk like that.’ But I had to make peace with it.”
Britton said she told her mom if she won her cancer battle, she would live to fight another day, and if she lost, she would get to see her daddy.
“He would be waiting for me, and I’d be okay with that. But, I wasn’t ready to go. I’m not ready to go.”
She said she was preparing herself for the battle of her life and she was preparing to win. “I fought with all that I had in me.”
Poe sent Britton to Grenada where she began six rounds of chemotherapy.
“Dr. Eunice told me ‘We’re going to hit you, and we’re going to hit you hard.’ They treated me with some stuff called the ‘Red Devil.’ After my treatments, I couldn’t function for days. My kids knew I was going to be alright when I asked for a hamburger. They said ‘Mama wants a hamburger.’”
She said with cancer, a person fights to keep something because they feel like they are losing everything.
“You’re poked and stuck and prodded and everything’s exposed. They don’t let you keep anything. It felt like I was losing everything, I at least wanted to keep my dignity.”
She said she endured 30 rounds of radiation and still went to work at Montgomery County High School.
“I would have surgery on Tuesday or a Wednesday, and I wouldn’t go back to work until the next Monday.”
Britton said her students were so helpful to her.
“They would meet me and carry my things for me. They would help me up the stairs. They made sure I was okay. They held a pep rally for me and made up cheers just for me,” she said.
Britton said cancer makes you wonder who will be there for you or who would miss you if you died.
She said there were so many people rallying around her and she needed that. Britton said there were days that were just too hard to bare.
“I would pray to God, ‘Please just let me make it through this. Give my body enough strength to endure.’ Because my body couldn’t take it. There are people who don’t win this fight and people who say they gave up. No! They didn’t give up, their body gave up. They wanted to live, but their body couldn’t take it anymore. There’s only so much your body can endure.”
She said her faith helped her through.
“Me and Jesus got close. I mean, we were already close, but we got close!” she said. “People would tell me ‘Just pray.’ I would tell them ‘What do you think I’m doing?’”
Britton said Dr. Eunice told her that she would lose her hair. “I told him ‘No, I’m not losing my hair.’”
But she did.
“I lost my hair, my eyebrows, the hair on my legs. I lost all of the hair on my body. I might had a little peach fuzz on my head, but I didn’t have hair.”
Britton said she found Dr. Philip Ley, a surgeon in Jackson that would do her mastectomy. She said after learning that she not only had breast cancer but a carrier for it, she had both her breasts removed. She said he took her right breast, and she went back later to have her left one removed.
“People would tell me, ‘They’re just breasts. You don’t need them.’ But, they are what makes us a woman.”
Britton said for reconstruction, her surgeon took muscle out of her back and put it in her breast. They then had to stretch the skin around her breast to “fit.”
“It hurt so bad,” she said. “I was in so much pain.” But, she never gave up, she dug in with all she could and she fought the round of her life and won.
“I faced death. I faced him. I stared him in the face. He didn’t care that I had a family who loved me. He didn’t care about my kids at school. He didn’t care about anything. He wanted me, but he couldn’t have me. Life is so precious. I know I’m blessed. We’re all blessed. But, I know that I’m blessed. When I was still at Montgomery County, one of the bus drivers told me ‘Mrs. Britton, you know you’re a living, breathing, walking testimony.’ And I thought, me? But, I am.”
Britton, who is now a fifth grade teacher at Winona Elementary School, said this isn’t just her fight, she fought for everyone. Her victory should feel like a victory for everyone in the fight for their life.
“This fight isn’t just for me. It just isn’t about me. This is for anyone who is going through it or has gone through it and won or has gone through it and didn’t make it. My story is their story. Our stories may not be the same, but my story is their story. I told one lady at chemo we’re sisters. Cancer has united us and it did.
