Marie Keatts' kindergarten teacher, Susan Echols, learned she had breast cancer that required surgery while the Tunstall graduate and Averett University elementary education major was observing her class.
"There really aren't words to say for that. ... She wasn't ready to not be able to work any more, and she wasn't ready to die," Keatts said. "I hated it for her and we tried to talk about it -- but I didn't really know what to say."
Keatts and her Averett University volleyball teammates, however, are doing what they can to help fight the disease when they incorporate the color pink into their uniforms for matches against Mary Baldwin and Meredith colleges today in Danville. The Cougars are collecting donations for breast cancer awareness at the games and online at sideoutvolleyball.org as part of Dig Pink Day. The players will wear pink socks, shoelaces and hair ribbons during the games and pink shirts throughout the school day.
"We can't really afford to go out and buy pink uniforms, which some schools do, but it's a small thing," Averett coach Danny Miller said after practice Thursday. "The whole entire month of October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and as a team -- the players are really behind it. They're excited about it ... and I think it's real exciting because it's not just because of the novelty of it. They're excited about what it stands for and what they're doing."
Increasing public awareness about breast cancer is an especially important endeavor because the disease is very treatable if detected early.
One in eight women who live to at least the age of 85 are expected to develop breast cancer at some point during their lives, according to the medical Web site WebMD.com.
Because of improved screening procedures and treatment options, at least seven out of 10 women with breast cancer will survive more than five years after their initial diagnosis. Half will survive more than 10 years.
Among the most significant factors are advancing age and a family history of breast cancer.
"I had none of the risk factors, so no one believed me when I thought that something was wrong with me. A standard mammogram came back as nothing suspicious," Echols, an Averett graduate, said. "I'm glad to see that my school is doing things like this. I think we need to take it to the next level, though, and see what kind of programs we're doing for women who can't afford treatment. ... There's so many other things we can do besides just be aware. We need to take action."
Echols thought she found a lump in her breast, but it wasn't determind to be cancerous until she underwent a biopsy nearly four months later. She learned that the cancer had been growing for years and that she needed a masectomy and chemotherapy that caused her to miss six months of work.
"My immune system was too weak to be around the children," Echols said, before detailing the disturbing treatment. "When they tried to do the plastic reconstruction it failed and I had to go through multiple skin grafts. The chemo wasn't as bad as all of the surgery."
Echols has been cancer-free for 2 1/2 years. She has returned to the classroom.
"The hair has grown back and I feel fairly normal," she said. "I don't want to be defined by my cancer. I just want to be normal. Normal feels really good."
Breast cancer awareness also hits home for Averett assistant volleyball coach Ashley Edwards, whose mother is a survivor of the disease. She caught it at a very early stage and has been in remission for 18 years.
Up and down the Averett roster are players whose lives have in some way been impacted by breast cancer.
Averett volleyball player Brittany Moore, a Bartlett Yancey graduate, recalls her friend's family being affected by the disease.
"It was hard seeing her family go through that and being supportive," Moore said. "It's exciting to know that we can be involved in something important like this."
Keatts' older sister, Ashley Clark, who also had Echols as a kindergarten teacher, is a mamographer at Morehead Memorial Hospital in nearby Eden, N.C.
She thinks what the Averett volleyball team is doing is wonderful and has provided brochures for distribution during the Cougars' matches.
"A lot of women are scared. They're always terrified of getting a mammogram," Clark said. "I go into it trying to ease their minds. It's very important for a woman to get a mammogram and to do self-detection. It's very curable if you detect it early on.
"Anybody can get a mammogram," Clark said, adding that Morehead is a community hospital that doesn't turn patients away because of a lack of insurance.
Regular self-exams are an extremely effective and proactive way for women to help themselves catch a potentially cancerous growth as soon as possible. In fact, women who perform regular self-exams find 90 percent of all breast masses, according to WebMD. The procedure is detailed on various Web sites and in the brochures that will be distributed at Averett.
"If I could give anybody advice -- they say be sure to get your annual mammogram, but they didn't find anything with me," Echols said. "Do it yourself. You know your body. If you know something is wrong, be persistent with it.
"If I hadn't been a hard head, they never would have found it." To see more of the Danville Register & Bee or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.registerbee.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Danville Register & Bee, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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