Page 134 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2017

HEALTHY LIVING warriors
134 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • October 2017 FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net
LOCAL WOMEN FIGHTING BREAST CANCER
and winning Tstory by Lynn Lofton photos courtesy of American Cancer Society
here’s a lot of emphasis on breast cancer during October with the observance of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but some local
women have a year-round awareness as they fight the battle and survive.
Leslie Ledet of D’Iberville celebrated
10 years as a survivor last month. An employee of the Mississippi Orthopedic Institute, she was 37 when a self examination and some pain in one breast paved the way for a mammogram and ultimately a bilateral mastectomy.
“I am a big believer in self exams and mammograms. I wish we didn’t have to wait until age 40 for insurance-paid mammograms,” she says. “When they sent me for a mammogram, I knew
I would have to pay for it; I wasn’t expecting to have breast cancer at age 37.”
Ledet had a swiftly moving breast cancer and is the first person in her family to have it. “I heard ‘cancer’ and wanted it out of my body,” she recalls.
She took a chemotherapy pill for
seven years and has had no additional problems. She’s enjoying being a grandmother to daughter Meghan Anderson’s daughter and soon-to-arrive son.
It’s a three-way fight with breast cancer for sisters McCall Roberts Andrews,
38, and 36-year-old twins Dr. Nicole Roberts Walton and Erica Roberts Schrock who grew up in Ocean Springs. McCall Andrews was diagnosed with stage four metastatic inflammatory breast cancer in June 2016 at age 37.
and Erica Schrock
Her cancer was caused by
the BRCA 1 genetic mutation.
“Currently, McCall is doing really well on weekly maintenance chemotherapy while also doing physical therapy to continue getting stronger. Most recently, she had a stable brain MRI,” Schrock said in mid September.
The genetic mutation puts the
sisters at a very high risk for both breast and ovarian cancer. Schrock
and Walton underwent prophylactic double mastectomies with immediate reconstruction in February 2017 and are scheduled for total hysterectomies in November. “It’s been a long year and
a big learning curve but information is power at this point,” Schrock said.
McCall and husband George Andrews have a son, Grant; Walton and husband Dr. Perry Walton are the parents of two daughters, Abigail and Hannah; and Schrock and husband Dr. Ben Schrock have two children, Parker and
Ford. The sisters’ 26-year-old sister, Meagan Roberts, currently lives in California and is negative for the
BRCA 1 genetic mutation.
SISTERS Erica Schrock, McCall Andrews and Nicole Walton are fighting breast cancer and winning.
LESLIE LEDET celebrated 10 years as a survivor!