How a Track Star’s Unexpected Diagnosis Made Her an Advocate for Colon Cancer Screening

If reducing your risk for colon cancer were an Olympic sport, Tonja Buford-Bailey could have won a medal. The 52-year-old former track star, who earned bronze for the 400-meter hurdles in the 1996 Olympics and now coaches other elite athletes, is in excellent physical shape. She drinks plenty of water. She’s never smoked. She eats [Continue Reading]

Ali Vise

Ali Vise

Beating the Odds

The BRCA gene mutations give women a 50-50 chance of developing breast cancer. Genetic testing can help them make a plan to protect themselves. Dana Cherry knew there was a good chance she would get breast cancer. When she was 25, she discovered that she had a gene mutation associated with a 50 percent chance [Continue Reading]

Ali Vise

Giving Back: Kimberly Richardson beat stage III breast cancer. Now she’s working to support others on their cancer journey.

Nearly four years ago, second grade elementary school teacher Kimberly Richardson received the worst news of her life. “It was as if the world had stopped moving for a moment,” she says, describing how she could not comprehend her diagnosis with stage III invasive ductal carcinoma, a form of breast cancer.  “The doctor began to [Continue Reading]

Ali Vise

Breast Cancer Patient’s Fight Continues Despite COVID-19 Pandemic

By: Heather Sessions When Chealci Eddins found a lump in her breast during a self-exam in the shower in September 2019, she wasn’t too worried. A young wife and mother, she had just finished her master’s degree and had plans to earn her Ph.D. She never dreamed that, at age 27, she would be diagnosed [Continue Reading]

Ali Vise

Male Breast Cancer: One Survivor Is Sharing His Experience in the Hopes That More Men Will Get Checked

Breast cancer was never far from Billy Mayo’s mind. In 2018, his wife, Teresa, underwent treatment for breast cancer; the same disease killed her mother two decades earlier. But while he worried about the disease regularly, he didn’t worry about getting it himself. In the fall of 2020, Billy, then 67, had just gotten out [Continue Reading]

Ali Vise