St. Mary's helps Madison county woman fight for her life.

Madison County resident Donna West was certain she did not have breast cancer. Yes, there was a painful lump in her breast. Yes, her fiancé had been urging her to get it checked out. But she was strong, active, had no family history of cancer, and was only 35 years old. As she underwent testing at St. Mary's, Donna laughed and joked with the staff.

Then, Brigid Gerety, MD, a diagnostic radiologist, sat Donna down, knelt in front of her, held her hand, and looked her straight in the eyes.

"She said, 'You need to be prepared to hear the word "cancer."' Donna says. "I had been in complete denial. Dr. Gerety is in it to win it and wanted to tell me everything so I could start taking the right steps to get better."

That was August 2006, eight months after Donna first noticed the lump. The first step was to get a clear picture of what she was facing. Using St. Mary's state-of-the-art CT and MRI scanners, physicians obtained highly detailed images of the inside of Donna's breast and surrounding tissue.

"Those machines are really intimidating," Donna says. "The staff held my hand, wiped my tears, and made sure I knew what everything was and how it worked. They really put me at ease."

One of the tests was a breast MRI. Using St. Mary's ultra-fast, ultra-quiet magnetic resonance imaging machine, physicians can see cancers too small to show up on a mammogram or ultrasound – even in younger women or women with dense breast tissue.

The tests confirmed Dr. Gerety's suspicions.

"Women need to realize that breast cancer can strike at any age," Dr. Gerety says. "Your risk increases as you get older, which is why we recommend regular mammograms for women age 40 and over, but younger women can and do develop breast cancer."

For Donna, the next step was a total mastectomy. Her surgeon removed her diseased breast and 18 lymph nodes, four of which tested positive for cancer.

But there was more bad news.

"Before the surgery, they thought it was pretty well-contained, but during surgery they found it was more aggressive than they had thought, and it had unclean margins that they weren't able to remove entirely," Donna says.

It seemed that her life was crashing down around her. The two days she spent as an inpatient at St. Mary's are a blur now, but Donna remembers how much she valued the compassion of the staff who cared for her.

"To come in and see a friendly face means so much," she says.

"We love St. Mary's," adds her husband, William Marlow. "It's like an extended family. They are genuine, caring people who are part of your life at a very hard time."

Two of those caring people were St. Mary's breast health nurses Amy Davis and Ginn Holder. They helped Donna understand what was happening to her body, prepare for the next steps in her treatment, and cope with the changes affecting every aspect of her life.

An example of the changes, Donna says, is that she quickly developed a new set of priorities. She and William had been dating for years, waiting to start a family until they were more stable financially. Suddenly, waiting seemed unbearable; they were married shortly after her diagnosis.

"In the middle of all the tears and worry, that was one of the happiest days of my life," she says, beaming.

Donna began radiation treatments and chemotherapy. All the hair on her body fell out, even her eyelashes. The radiation actually burned. She felt too sick and fatigued to work. But each week when she came to Athens for her treatments, she would find the offices of Northeast Georgia Cancer Care filled with people fighting for life.

"There are so many people with cancer," Donna says. "Old, young, all colors, all ages, every stage of life. A lot of people are there by themselves. It's a very emotional thing."

Donna became depressed and anxious, common problems for people with cancer. Her physicians prescribed medications to help her, and she started coming to St. Mary's Breast Cancer Support Group.

The biggest source of her anxiety was fear that the cancer would return. Amy Davis helped her confront that fear.

"Amy said it's all about being prepared. She asked me: 'What will you do if it comes back?' And I realized, if it does come back, I'll deal with it, just like I did this time. That kind of takes the fear out of it."

Today, Donna is feeling better. Her hair has grown back and her energy levels are improving. William takes her hand and says, "The light is back in your eyes!"

She is learning to cope with permanent changes in her body and will be taking cancer-fighting drugs for years, but she is eating healthfully, exercising regularly, and is proud that she is well enough to return to her job at the Athens Merial plant. Her love of animals is fueling a new dream: creating a service to care for the pets of people undergoing cancer treatment.

She's also looking forward to reconstructive surgery and to beginning a family. Before she started chemotherapy, she had eggs harvested and fertilized, and 19 embryos were frozen, a precaution that turned out to be wise.

"That's been kind of the light at the end of our tunnel," she says.

And Donna gets great satisfaction from talking to others about her experience.

"I had stage 3b cancer, but I'm lucky," she says. "I'm living proof that you don't have to be 40 to get breast cancer. I'm not in remission, I'm not cured, but I am better. I had to change everything about my life, but the hardest part was admitting I had cancer. With my husband by my side, and the staff at St. Mary's, I never had to feel alone."