Some may call it unwise, but she calls it holding on to her faith in God. Attorney and boutique owner Vangela Mechelle Wade went through three years of law school with a lump in her left breast.
“Oct. 28 or 29, 2010, marks my 14th year as a breast cancer survivor,” said the Madison resident, who is a native of Verona, Miss. south of Tupelo.
To continue the need for increase awareness about breast cancer, The Mississippi Link talked with Wade recently and she shared some of her story:
“The lump that was in my breast was there for three years before I actually got a biopsy. The reason I did not have a biopsy in the course of three years…A caveat here, I certainly wouldn’t advise anyone to do as I did, but do as I say. The reason I didn’t is that at that point, I had decided to go to law school, and I was a divorced single parent. It was just my son and I. He was six or seven years old at the time. Going to law school was the best course of action for he and I to have the best possible life that I could [provide].
Initially, I found it [the lump] and I went to doctor. He said, ‘Oh well, you don’t fit the profile. You’re too young.’ At that point, I was close to 31. The doctor said, ‘There is no history on your mother’s side. So that is one reason that lump wouldn’t be cancerous. So, we’ll just watch it.’ That was before I decided to resign my job. I was working with the housing authority in DeKalb County, Ga.
Just before I got ready to go to law school, and before resigning my job, I did all my check ups and medical visits. And again the doctor said, ‘Oh, there is that lump again, but I wouldn’t worry about it.’
That’s when I sought the power of prayer, because I knew I wasn’t going to have any insurance. So, I could not afford to get a second opinion. I didn’t have any money, and I was trying to raise a son. So, I said, God, it is in your hand.
Now for other people the situation may be different. I’m not advising anyone to take a chance on his or her life. Had I the means then, I would have gotten a second opinion or a biopsy. I wholeheartedly recommend second opinions or getting one’s doctor to do an aspiration or biopsy to be sure.
After law school and upon getting insurance, I had a lumpectomy in 1996 and a few weeks after that, I started chemo for six months and following that I did six weeks, five days a week, of radiation. My surgery was Oct. 28 or 29 of 1996.
They also removed 11 lymph nodes. Cancer cells can travel throughout the body through those lymph nodes, but my nodes were clear. I did have the chemo and the radiation to maximize my recovery; to make sure I would not have a recurrence of the cancer. I have not had any problems in the 14 years since. I did not have to have any additional treatments as some women do.”
Wade told The Mississippi Link that she strongly advises women over 40 to have their annual mammogram. “If you’re not having a yearly mammogram, you’re playing Russian roulette with your life,” she stressed. “I would definitely advise women…to pay attention to their bodies. Do your own regular self-breast exam. You’re better equipped to identify any thing that’s different about your body than anyone else.”
Wade said family and friends were key to her coping with her cancer challenges. She applauds her husband, Attorney Thandi Wade, whom she met in law school and later married in 1997. “He was my rock through my entire ordeal,” she said.
Thandi Wade said he was pleased to be there to encourage his wife along. “First of all, she has always been strong-minded herself.” He also encourages others faced with such challenges to “keep a strong belief in God and stay together.”
Verdonna Williams, Vangela Wade’s sister, shared, “Considering how young she was, she dealt with it very bravely, very maturely and spiritually. Her faith kept her from being down.”
Vangela’s longtime friend Shelly Nave of Atlanta echoes Williams’s sentiments.
Nave said Vangela was a “real trooper, especially when they told her she might not be able to have any more children.”
Wade was pre-menopausal. It’s a known fact that the chemo and radiation can affect childbearing, especially in pre-menopausal women. “I would have you to know that three years after I finished my cancer treatment, not only did we have a child, we had children,” Vangela Wade said. “We had twins and those twins were seven pounds and four ounces each, which is unheard of for twins.”
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