Cancer survivor: ‘Chemo was the one thing I didn’t think I could do’

There have been many unexpected occurrences in Michelle Lemon McDaniels’ life, none the least of which is her battle with breast cancer.

It is McDaniels’ positive attitude and her strong faith that Dr. N. Craig Brackett III, a surgeon at Coastal Carolina Breast Center in Murrells Inlet, said has helped her through her ordeal.

“She’s such a positive, delightful lady,” said Dr. Brackett, who also directs Georgetown Hospital Systems Breast Health Program. “She has such a good attitude. We just need to be more upbeat about this disease and its prognosis.”

With all she has been through, it is hard to imagine how the 53-year-old has kept her positive outlook on life. Numerous events have challenged her health as well as her faith, which she says has never wavered.

On the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, McDaniels was among employees evacuated from a Wall Street law office in New York when she saw the second terrorist plane hit the World Trade Center. Jumping on the last train to make it through the tunnels to Grand Central Station, she realized that many people on the train had no idea what had happened. When she emerged, the two towers had collapsed and the trains had stopped running.

It was an experience the native New Yorker said she would never forget. Back at work the next Monday, she walked past walls covered with photos of missing people and “smelled the graves of the more than 3,000 people who died,” she said.

In 2003, tragedy once again struck McDaniels’ life. Usually commuting by train to work, she decided to drive in one day so she could go visit her aunt in the Bronx. On her way that morning a rotted tree fell on top of her SUV totaling her vehicle and leaving her with severe back injuries.

By then she was divorced and her dad and stepmother had moved to South Carolina. Her daughter was grown and McDaniels was ready to come south and start a new life.

She moved to Marion and opened a judgement recovery business working from home with lawyers in New York when tragedy struck once again. Five minutes from her stepmother’s funeral, she was involved in a car accident and between the two vehicle accidents, she has undergone several back surgeries. Eventually she was also taking care of her ailing dad who came to live with her until he died in 2011 and she adopted his two little dogs, Dutchess and Duke.

Her life took another unexpected turn in 2012 after opening her home to a pregnant stepdaughter from her former marriage. A few weeks after giving birth, the mother abandoned the baby. For fear she would end up in the foster care system, McDaniels adopted her.

“I was the first person Brielle saw when she opened her eyes,” McDaniels said with pride of the little girl who turned 3 on Sept. 11. “She didn’t have a voice and somebody had to fight for her. I wouldn’t have slept not knowing what kind of life she would have.”

By March 2015, McDaniels was a grandmother of two and doing her best to raise a toddler when she went in for a routine mammogram and was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Describing herself as a no nonsense person, she said she clung to her faith to get her through her troubles. It was when she underwent chemo, however, that she said, “I felt like I was dying.”

“With everything I’ve been through, chemo was the one thing I didn’t think I could do,” she said.

Finishing her 12 weeks of treatments in mid-August, she began radiation Sept. 3.

The 53-year-old has pushed through the fatigue and the memory loss and losing her hair by giving God the credit for her strength and sound mind. She also credits good friends like Phoebe Legette, a hair stylist who made her a natural hair wig that is a replica of her original hairstyle.

“I’m a strong presence but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m human,” she said. “I don’t like feeling like a burden and I’m glad I could get through this without losing my smile.”

With one in eight women in the U.S. diagnosed with breast cancer, McDaniels said she never asked “why me.” She is also thankful for her doctors and new medical procedures that help save women’s lives.

The protocols for treating breast cancer today are far different than they were 20 years ago, according to Dr. Brackett, who said it is partly due to a greater understanding of the genetics of cancer cells.

“We understand so much more about the biological behavior of breast cancer. Today we use different targeted therapies. It is real exciting that we are making cancers disappear,” he said.

Brackett said survivorship is very important and it is critical that the medical staff be encouraging to patients.

“It’s all about providing hope. Unlike in the ‘50s and ‘60s, it is not a death sentence today. We are saving more lives than we ever have and they (the patients) need to know that so they can live a normal life,” Brackett said.

A proponent of preserving the affected breast, Dr. Brackett said, “Mastectomy is not better.” He said data shows that women have a better survival with conservation therapy and they do better emotionally.

A member of a multi-disciplinary tumor board, he said he has discussed along with other medical specialists the cases of some 2,000 cancer patients. With so many different types of cancer, targeted therapies are key to making tumors disappear, he said.

McDaniels plans to be among the anticipated 1,000 plus participants in Tidelands Health Foundation’s “In the Pink” Breast Cancer Awareness Walk on Oct. 3. Her friends, Samantha Murray and Legette, along with her Uncle Charles Miller who drove her to her chemo visits, plan to accompany her on the two-mile walk. It will begin at Waccamaw Medical Park East and wind up at U.S. 17 Bypass and around the Murrells Inlet Marsh Walk. Activities begin at 8:30 a.m. with a survivor celebration followed by the walk at 10 a.m.

Dr. Brackett said seeing so many long-time survivors at the annual walk gives recently diagnosed women like McDaniels “so much hope.”

“It’s a sea of pink with all those happy faces,” he said.

The funds raised will help provide free breast cancer screenings for women in Horry and Georgetown counties.

This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 2:21 PM with the headline "Cancer survivor: ‘Chemo was the one thing I didn’t think I could do’."