Charnita is a single mother of two daughters and the grandmother of two boys. “Those boys are spoiled,” she said with a laugh. “Especially now.” More than a year after learning she had breast cancer, Charnita is focused on living her best life and leaving stress behind.
In August 2023, Charnita was diagnosed with stage 3 triple negative breast cancer. There’s no history of breast cancer in her family, but in 2022, Charnita’s mother passed away unexpectedly. “I had been her caretaker for two years. I was suffocating from grief,” she said.
Charnita realized she needed a new start in a new environment, somewhere far away, so she moved from Michigan, where she was born and raised, and headed south. Charnita found a job and a place to live and reached out to friends nearby. “I wasn’t afraid to move and start new. I’ve always been resourceful,” she said.
Charnita’s daughters and grandsons soon relocated south, too, which surprised and delighted her. “We had initially all planned to move to different states,” she said. “Now I had everybody near me again, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.”
Charnita was sitting on her couch one day when she felt something on her chest. She asked one of her daughters to look at it. “She said it didn’t feel right, it felt like something hard,” Charnita said. “That wasn’t normal for me.” She made an appointment with her doctor, who did an exam and arranged a diagnostic mammogram, followed by a biopsy.
“When I got called back in, I really couldn’t believe what I was being told,” she said. “It was a gloomy day and I took a picture of the dark clouds, of the gloom outside. And I thought, this is not how it’s going to end. There’s going to be sunshine again. I knew my faith was being tested in a major way.”
Charnita’s primary care doctor referred her to an oncologist. “She told me, from this moment on, you’re not in our care anymore, now you’re going to be taken care of by an oncologist,” she said. “But she was so encouraging to me. She said, ‘this doesn’t have to be the end for you.’ At that moment, I felt like my spirit was awakened and her words gave me hope.”
The oncologist was direct. “She told me the cancer was aggressive, so we needed to fight it aggressively. I took that to heart. She told me stress was my biggest enemy, so that day, I started to eliminate the stress from my life,” Charnita said. Her job was her biggest source of stress, so she put in her notice. Her daughters stepped up to help financially to make sure she could go through treatment without having to work.
As a natural caregiver, Charnita had to learn to ask for help – and accept it. “I’m a giver, I’m the motivator and the encourager, so I had to swallow my pride and ask for help and learn how to be a receiver,” she said.
At first, chemotherapy didn’t affect Charnita. “I felt like a champ,” she said. “I had energy, I had my taste, I had an appetite.” Then, during the fourth week, she started losing her hair. Her appetite waned and the fatigue and exhaustion set in, which affected her ability to get around. She had issues with dehydration and nausea, and ended up going to the ER three times. “There were scary moments, but I had to have mind over matter, I knew I needed to fight mentally,” Charnita said. “You can’t always see the flipside when you’re in the middle of it.”
After six months of chemotherapy, Charnita had surgery, followed by 25 rounds of radiation therapy and immunotherapy, which she recently completed.
Aside from reducing stress in her life, Charnita also found support groups beneficial. “I’d encourage someone newly diagnosed or at any point in their journey to join a support group and to try not to panic. It’s natural to feel a little fear, but that adds stress,” she said. “I’d also tell someone to embrace your oncology team, your care team. You cannot fight cancer alone. It truly takes a village.”
Statements and opinions expressed are that of the individual and do not express the views or opinions of Susan G. Komen. This information is being provided for educational purposes only and is not to be construed as medical advice. Persons with breast cancer should consult their health care provider with specific questions or concerns about their treatment.
