Six-time cancer survivor says she has the will to keep up fight
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on October 31, 2014 1:46 PM
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Jennifer Lucas, right, a six-time cancer survivor, and Karen Harper, center, also a cancer survivor, sales associates at the Belk cosmetics counter, help customer Betty Jo King.
Jennifer Lucas is a cancer survivor -- not once, but six times.
The 70-year-old battled her first round with cancer in 1976 when she discovered a lump in her left breast. Her doctor removed the lumps and some lymph nodes.
In 1978, Mrs. Lucas found lumps in her right breast, and had them removed, too.
Two years later, there were more lumps in her left breast and two years after that more in her right breast again. The fourth surgery took out not only the lumps and more lymph nodes, but also part of her right breast.
But the worst was yet to come.
In 1985, doctors found an 11-pound tumor in Mrs. Lucas' uterus.
"They went through my navel to take it out," she said. "But when they went in, it was so huge that it burst, and they had to open me up right away because the poison from the tumor was spreading."
Having survived five bouts of cancer, Mrs. Lucas thought the ordeal was over.
It wasn't.
Doctors found cancerous tumors in her brain in 2008. Mrs. Lucas had surgery to remove four tumors from the right side of her brain the following year.
But while she was on the operating table, she began having seizures, and also suffered a stroke.
"When they opened my skull, the tumors were sticking to the top of the skull," she said. "That caused the stroke, and I was paralyzed on my left side."
Five years later, the only lingering signs of the stroke are partial foot numbness and numbness in two fingers on her left side.
After the brain surgery, Mrs. Lucas underwent gamma knife treatment in 2010 in which a crown was screwed into her head in back and in front while she was awake.
"They deadened the nerve with Novocaine," she said. "Then I went into this sphere and the gamma rays went around me and killed the tumors that were left behind from what they didn't get during surgery. They had to screw the crown into my head so I wouldn't move even a centimeter while the gamma rays were going into my head."
Last year, Mrs. Lucas underwent cyber knife treatment in which there were two laser beams on both sides of her head and one that went all around her body.
Although she stayed in Greenville for the treatment during the week for a month, Ms. Lucas came home to Goldsboro on the weekends and worked her job at the cosmetics counter at Belk at Berkeley Mall.
She's currently on medication for another tumor on the left side of her brain.
But she's not giving up the fight.
"You have to fight this thing," Mrs. Lucas said. "It can take over you or you can master it. I have strong beliefs in my faith. I am a minister of the gospel, and I have to put that to work. I let the doctors do what they have to do, but I put God first because he's the one who makes it all happen."
Mrs. Lucas considers herself lucky because she caught the cancers early. She said that's why early detection is so crucial.
She would say this to anyone who's just been given a cancer diagnosis: "You're flesh and you're going to feel like, 'Why me?' Cry if you must. Throw a tantrum if you must. Then find out what has to be done. Don't let it take you over. You master it.
"Pull on your faith. Pull on somebody around you who you know has strong beliefs. Don't be around woe-is-me people because that's defeating your own cause. You have to be strong and persevere."