Activities raise awareness of breast cancer

In 1976, Pat Cook was a 30-year-old nurse married to a doctor who had a thriving practice. They had two children, ages 3 and 6. She was president of the local service league.

She was busy and involved in the Dothan community. She also had breast cancer.

“At 30 years old, I had never practiced breast self exam,” Cook said.

But one morning she did and felt a lump. A biopsy showed the lump was malignant, and Cook underwent a modified radical mastectomy. Three weeks later, she started chemotherapy — which she repeated three days a week for a year.

Cook emphasizes breast self exams, regular mammograms and developing a good relationship with your doctor. She tells those who listen that she had one prayer back in 1976. And 32 years later, she still gets emotional repeating it.

“God, please let me live to see my children grow up,” Cook said. “I just did not want my children to grow up without their mother.”

Today Cook has six grandchildren.

Cook was just one of the breast cancer survivors who attended a ceremony on Monday to kick-off Breast Cancer Awareness Month at Southeast Alabama Medical Center. The hospital will once again display its 40-foot pink ribbon on the outside of its building.

Dr. Steve Stokes, a local radiation oncologist, said screening is particularly a challenge in rural communities, which is why the hospital created a mobile health screening unit to go out into rural communities and screen residents for breast, prostate and colon cancers.

In its first year, the mobile health unit has screened 1,500 patients. Much of the money raised through the Southeast Alabama Medical Center Foundation goes to fund the mobile unit.

At the time Cook was diagnosed, there was no oncologist in Dothan, and chemotherapy was a relatively new treatment for cancer in the United States. Cook and her family survived that year, and Cook has spent the 32 years since telling and retelling her story.

“When I was first diagnosed, people didn’t talk about it,” she said.

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Breast Cancer Awareness Month events
Oct. 1-31: Lights of Hope Tribute Gift Giving. Send donations to the Southeast Alabama Medical Center Foundation, P.O. Box 6987, Dothan, Ala., 36302.

Oct. 6: Dance for Life, a celebration of breast cancer survival at the Dothan Opera House, 7 p.m. Tickets available at the Dothan Civic Center box office. Call 615-3175.

Oct. 20: Treatment Options for Breast Cancer presentation, seventh floor conference room; dinner at 5:30 p.m.; speaker at 6 p.m.

Oct. 21: Girls Night Out, breast cancer health care presentation and risk assessments for breast cancer. Breast self exam demonstrations; seventh floor conference room; 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Oct. 25: Champions of Hope, 5K Run/Walk and Kids’ Dash; SAMC Women’s Center; 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.