Sandy McKay of Carrollton was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1985 at the age of 37.
Over the past 36 years, much has changed since McKay battled the disease, from awareness and early detection to treatment and recovery. However, the battle against the disease is surprisingly similar in many cases, with a strong faith providing strength in recovery.
When McKay was diagnosed with breast cancer, a national breast cancer awareness initiative was its infancy. In fact, Breast Cancer Awareness Month during the month of October began that very year, as a partnership between the American Cancer Society and the pharmaceutical division of Imperial Chemical Industries. Former First Lady Betty Ford, herself a survivor of the disease, helped kick off the first awareness campaign.
According to a 2016 article in Time Magazine about the history of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s brought awareness and increased activism in women’s health.
“Until this point in time, breast cancer was an ‘unspeakable’ condition that women experienced privately and silently, with shame rather than social support. It took acts of individual women speaking out about cancer, as well as feminist organizing that targeted the relationship between female patients and the male-dominated medical establishment, for the issue to go public and become less stigmatized.”
McKay remembered that at the time of her diagnosis, open discussion of breast cancer was still considered somewhat taboo.
“I didn’t know anyone who had [breast cancer],” she said. “Of course, you didn’t talk about it.”
McKay discovered a lump under her arm while bathing sought medical attention.
“They didn’t recommend self-exams back then, especially for people 37 years old,” McKay said.
She did not have a mammogram after the mass was discovered. Her physician ordered a needle biopsy of the lump, which required the patient to be placed under general anesthesia at the time. McKay said her doctor said he would go in and take a needle biopsy of the mass and if it was determined to be malignant, he would remove her breast during the same procedure.
“I had a single mastectomy,” McKay said. “[The tumor] was very large.”
McKay said the procedure began in the morning, and when she awakened in the recovery room, it was 11 p.m. that same evening. She said she wasn’t told the tumor was malignant or that her breast was removed. She deduced that for herself based on the length of the procedure.
“When I was in recovery, I remember [my brother] Snooky [Lee] asking my mom if I knew what had happened,” she said. “I knew just from how much time had passed.”
McKay recovered in the hospital for a week, and she remembered the nurses not getting her on her feet and walking around for two full days.
“It is so different now,” she said. “Now everything is like a drive-thru.”
And while the topic of her condition wasn’t discussed, she remembered friends and family visiting her in the hospital.
“They knew about it because so many people visited me, but it wasn’t talked about,” McKay said.
Even when she returned to work and began a five-round protocol of chemotherapy and radiation, McKay said she did not discuss it with her co-workers.
McKay was the first patient to receive chemotherapy at the Greenwood Leflore Hospital under the late Dr. Walter Moses. Prior to that, cancer patients were required to travel to Jackson to receive chemotherapy. She received chemotherapy every three weeks.
“I had five rounds of chemo,” McKay said. “I would take it on Friday so I could recover over the weekend. I worked. I would only miss a day or two, but I had to work.”
McKay said the side effects she experienced after the fourth treatment were so debilitating, she almost discontinued her future treatment.
However, she chose to continue her battle. With a husband, Leon, and two sons, Buddy and Andy, at home and a strong faith, she completed her treatment.
“I never had any feelings that I was going to die,” she said. “But I think the fatality rate was pretty high then.”
In 1985, the mortality rate for breast cancer was 33 percent, compared to 2.6 percent now.
“I remember asking God to let me live six more years so Andy would be out of school and college,” she said. “I am strong in my faith. I had no doubt that he would do that.”
McKay never had reconstructive surgery following her mastectomy. She said it was never discussed as an option for her back then. However, she has not had a reoccurrence of the cancer all these years later.
Now aged 74, McKay has a mammogram once a year to screen for breast cancer. Prior to her diagnosis, she had no family history of breast cancer.
