Volume 128 Issue 32
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Kansan.com | The student voice since 1904
SURVIVOR'S STORY
KU student tells story of mother who survived breast cancer
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Ulman Cancer Foundation charity fundraising bike team delivers Adam Reeves, second from right, a scholarship check outside Kansan Union. The bike team rides from the East to West Coasts under a sponsorship that provides a certain monetary donation for the cancer foundation for each mile ridden.
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CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
MARIA SANCHEZ
@MariaSanchezKU
Two days after Christmas in 2012, Angel and Gregory Reeves were on their way to buy groceries in Pleasant Hill, Mo., when they received a phone call from the doctor's office. "Is someone with you? Can you come in?" They did not know it yet, but their world was about to drastically change.
The Reeves' oldest son, KU sophomore Adam Reeves, said the whole family was worried following the phone call on that otherwise ordinary day. Once Angel and Gregory came home, they sat all of their children down to give them the news.
"It was a shift in gravity kind of feeling." Adam said. "From that point on, everything changed priority wise and the way the world was going to work until mom was better."
Angel had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Just seven weeks before, Angel had given birth to her sixth child, a baby girl. After the pregnancy, Angel developed a golf ball-sized lump in her breast. A couple weeks before Christmas, Angel had the lump removed, being told the lump was not cancerous. The doctors were wrong.
["My daughter] came into the world in a hurry and started us on this crazy journey," Angel said.
The Reewes' contacted the University of Kansas Hospital for a second opinion and were told that Angel's cancer was triple negative, a more aggressive form of breast cancer. The hospital insisted Angel begin chemotherapy treatment as soon as possible.
Her family and doctors convinced her to begin treatment. But that did not stop Angel. Even on treatment days, Angel continued to come home to look after her kids, Adam said.
"Whether she really felt like it or not, that's just her personality," Adam said. "To be incredibly strong and having these issues in all honesty highlighted it to all of us how hard she was going to work."
When she could, Angel searched for scholarship opportunities for Adam. Adam said after finding out about his mother's diagnosis, she said something positive might come out of it for him. It didn't take long for her prediction to come true, as Adam was awarded the Ulman Cancer Foundation for Young Adults Scholarship in 2013.
"It's exactly like her. Instead of worrying about herself and being mopey about it, she's going to make some positive out of it," Adam said.
As a mom and homemaker, Angel takes pride in supporting and taking care of her family. She always got up in the mornings and took care of her kids, continuing even during treatments. One of Angel's methods for coping with treatment was to make small goals for herself every day, like making sure all the beds were made.
"We just tried to keep things normal as possible for everybody because I didn't want them to see any huge changes or for it to affect them negatively" Angel said. "I wanted them to see that it could be OK and they didn't have to worry about things."
On normal days, Angel's husband, Gregory, would take the
kids to school, which allowed Angel to sleep while her baby did. Just 12 weeks into her newborn's life, Angel could not lift or carry her.
"That was really hard," Angel said. "We had this new baby and I felt like I couldn't do much with her."
Angel said Adam helped with the kids and took them wherever they needed to be. This responsibility was a big one, but he knew he had to carry it for his mother.
"It was that first feeling I ever had that I can do this no matter what because I need to do it for someone I love. It was a very different leadership feeling [than] I've ever had before," Adam said.
Angel also struggled with her treatment. After completing several rounds of chemotherapy, Angel began to lose her hair.
The transition was difficult for both Angel and Adam. Adam said he remembers the day she cut it off and began wearing wigs. After that point, Angel never saw herself without a wig on.
"I remember feeling really bad because I felt like it was my fault. Just being there and being able to be strong for her when she was not feeling herself and not letting my emotion mess with that so that I could be strong for her," Adam said. "It's a sobering experience to say the least."
"She'd close her eyes to put on the wig and she'd never see herself bald," Adam said. "It was a lot of work to make her realize it was OK and she was still beautiful and it didn't matter what she looked like at that point in time."
Angel had her last chemotherapy treatment the first week of
him. In 2013, the family traveled to Lawrence in preparation for Adam's freshman year. Angel received chemo the day before and the day's activities took a toll on her body. She passed out at one point during the day, Adam said.
On not-so-normal days,
Adam said it was hard to not
let his emotions get the best of
SEE CANCER PAGE 3
NATIONAL STATS:
One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. (nationalbreastcancer.org)
Each year it is estimated that over 220,000 women in the United States, of all ages, will be diagnosed with breast cancer — 40,000 of them will die. (nationalbreastcancer.org)
2,150 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and approximately 40 will die each year. (nationalbreastcancer.org)
Death rates from breast cancer have been declining since 1990. (nationalbreastcancer.org)
PREVENTATIVE CARE:
Regular mammography screenings help catch most breast cancer cases at an early stage.
(Susan G. Koman Foundation)
"A mamogram isn't something a woman needs to worry about until she's 40, unless she's having some other kind of symptom or notice something is different."
—Dr. Jenny McKee, education program coordinator at Watkins Memorial Health Center
IN LAWRENCE:
IN LAWRENCE:
"In Lawrence, the only place to get a mammogram done is at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Or they also have some satellite radiology units in Lawrence as well. But we don't do mammograms at Watkins."
Dr. Douglas DeChairo, director of Student Health Services
SELF EXAMS
SELF EXAMS
"Many women find out they have breast cancer because they detect something themselves before they have a mammogram. Women should do a self-breast exam every month. It's important to do it at the same time every month and not to do it while you're on your period. The importance of doing a self-exam cannot be stressed enough. It is critical."
McKea
Student Senate works to change priority enrollment
MIRANDA DAVIS
@MirandaDavisUDK
Student Senate has started a project that, if successful, would give priority enrollment to students at the University who are also parents.
Senate executives have a meeting with Hilltop Child Development Center this Thursday, which will be the last step before taking the idea to the registrar's office.
If implemented, the University would be the first in the Big 12 to offer this option to student-parents. Senators have been doing research into initiatives like this at other schools and have only found a small amount of smaller colleges. No large state schools have done this yet and the University would be on the forefront of this policy.
Morgan Said, student body president, said many parents at the University have hectic schedules and this would make one piece a little easier.
"I think parenting alone is probably the hardest job the in world so to pair that with school and in most cases a job is such a tough balancing act and many students have reached out to me since we started this, indicating their excitement about this." Said said.
Jeremy Fite, executive director of Hilltop Child Development Center, said he is excited about the initiative and said it help parents graduate as soon as possible.
"It would be nice to have our parents get priority enrollment because I think it keeps them motivated and get them enrolled in classes quicker," Fite said. "The easier you make it on parents the more likely they are to graduate, so by providing priority enrollment for classes, plus we offer child care, we are trying to be as convenient as possible to parents to increase the likelihood they will finish their degree."
The policy would help alleviate stress many student-parents feel when organizing class and child care schedules each semester.
"Life happens, especially when you have children, so you want to get done as quickly as possible," Fite said.
Said said the decision to work on this came this summer while working on platforms for non-traditional students at the University. She said this was a great first step, but that the office hopes to continue to work with smaller groups of non-traditional students to help meet their needs on campus.
"No group is too small (for us) to really work to change their four years here and that's our goal." Said said.
MICHAEL O'BRIEN/KANSAN
Student Body President Morgan Said addresses Student Senate during its meeting on Sept. 17 in Alderson Auditorium at the Kansas Union. Student Senate has started an initiative that would give priority enrollment to student-parents at the University if it is successful.
Edited by Lyndsey Havens
CLASSIFIEDS 13
CROSSWORD 6
CRYPTOQUIPS 6
OPINION 4
SPORTS 14
SUDOKU 6
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2014 The University Daily Kansai
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