Barbara Young of Durant is a four-time cancer survivor. Young went from having it “all” to losing it all once she became sick. A board member of the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation, Young told her story to those in attendance at the Central Mississippi, Inc.’s Breast Cancer Awareness Event on Friday, Oct. 18.
“I had the three bedroom, two bath [house], a car, truck, a dog and a cat. I had it going on,” she said.
She said her husband worked at Durant Hospital, and she worked two jobs. She said as she was getting ready to go to her second job, she felt a lump in her right breast. She almost brushed it off, but she was encouraged to get it checked.
“I went to the Health Department, but they were full just like it is in here, so I went to see Dr. [Arthur] Derrick, at Durant Hospital,” she said.
Young said when she got there, the doctor asked her about her visit. She said she told him she needed a physical and to go to work.
“My husband worked at the hospital, and I didn’t know he had called him,” she said.
She said while preparing for her examination, there was a knock at the door and her husband came in. She said Dr. Derrick found a lump under her arm in her right breast the size of an orange.
Instead of going to work, Young was sent to St. Dominic’s Memorial Hospital in Jackson.
Young said they did a biopsy, surgery, and started her on a treatment regimen.
“[Chemotherapy treatments] were really bad and hard and you have to remember this was back in the 90s,” she said, describing her experience as “being bitten by ants.”
“You know how you get into an ant bed? [The nurse] told me all this was going to feel like it was on fire,” she said motioning toward the lower region of her body. “And it did, it felt like I was on fire.”
Young said after removing one of her breasts, her doctor asked her if she wanted to remove both. She declined, but a few years later, she was diagnosed with cancer in the other breast. She said the second diagnosis was difficult to accept.
Young said when she became sick, she and her husband suffered financially and struggled to make ends meet. Then the cancer spread.
“I had colon cancer, then I had the ‘booga bear’ – stomach cancer,” she said.
Young said she and her husband had cancer insurance through his job at the hospital. She said at one point, she felt like they didn’t need cancer insurance and thought about canceling.
However, they did need it, and they needed it at that time more than ever, especially after the hospital in Durant closed.
“They [officials at the hospital] told them that the hospital was closing and anyone that was on the insurance was no longer eligible, and they would have to come off,” she said.
Young said with the cost of her healthcare, she and her husband lost everything.
“I had a lot of friends, when I lost everything, they stopped coming around. Some still came just to see what I looked like. I weighed 94 pounds,” she said. “It hurt to walk, it hurt to laugh, it hurt when someone came in with perfume or cologne on and I had to sneeze. It hurt.”
She said she couldn’t do anything for herself. She couldn’t walk, she could not clean herself, she couldn’t even wipe her mouth.
“I ran away. I told my husband ‘I’m tired, I’m not doing it anymore, I’m running away.’ And, I was barely moving. My husband ‘Where you going?’ I told him ‘I’m running far, far away and I’m not ever coming back.’ He said ‘Okay.’ He just scooped me up and put me back in the bed.”
Young said one day, she had an encounter with God.
“I was laying in the bed and my husband kept the door unlocked because we had a uncle that lived near us that would check on me. And, I heard someone calling my name ‘Barbara.’ And, I knew it was the voice of Jesus. I rolled out the bed and crawled. I said ‘Lord, please help me.’ And I tried to crawl to the end of the dresser but I couldn’t make it,” she said. “I told Him, ‘Lord, if you heal me, I’ll be a running fool for you.’ And, I tried to crawl to the end of the dresser again and it looked like the dresser was 90 miles away. And, I tried to crawl to the end of the dresser again and I got to the end and pulled up and I’ve been up since then.”
Young now helps others in Durant and around Holmes County.
“Before you can tell them to get this,” she said pointing to the paper about mammograms, “You got to help them. You got to help the mommas before they can get help.”
She said people need to learn how to help one another instead of the “crabs in a bucket” mentality.
“If you need love, take the love you need. I need you and you need me. If you see someone in need, hold her hand, talk to her, say it’s alright. It may not cancer; it may be a financial crisis, you never know. We are here for a reason, we’re here to serve one another. We’re servants.”
Young said despite all she has endured, she is blessed.
“People always ask me why am I always happy and laughing. God has been good to me! I can help her [Freddie White-Johnson and the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Center] through the things she’s going through because I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I can stand shoulder to shoulder with her. We all need to stand shoulder to shoulder to each other.”
