The Courage to Thrive After Breast Cancer

The fight against breast cancer for Sabrina Gulley began while she was on a church trip five years ago.

“I woke up and looked in the mirror and something didn’t look right. When I returned home, I went to the doctor. You couldn’t see it on the mammogram because it was close to my sternum, “ recalls the 45 year-old mother of two.

A friend who is a doctor delivered the news of triple negative breast cancer to Gulley and her husband. A petite woman with a ready smile, she braced for the health battle that lay before her.   “I wanted to know what is the next step? What do I have to do to move past this? I was bruised but not broken,” she says.

The tenacity Gulley showed in those early days solidified her resolve and fed her faith.  She had surgery and started her chemotherapy treatments. Although she had prepared herself for the weeks of chemo, the first visit didn’t go as planned. “It was very bad. It was horrible. I couldn’t start my chemotherapy because my blood count was so low.”

But, she was not deterred. By the end of day, she had regrouped. Gulley says she encouraged herself by recalling God’s loving care during her mother’s decades long coma after she suffered an aneurysm when Gulley was only five years old.  In her 20’s, Gulley lost her sister-in-law to cancer. And shortly after her death, Gulley’s brother died of cancer. He was 27.

She says, “Things only happen for a season. I never questioned why breast cancer happened to me. Why not me? Better me than my kids or someone else I love.”

Triple negative breast cancer disproportionately affects Black and Hispanic women. It is harder to treat because it does not respond to traditional therapies. African American women are three times more likely than white women to contract triple negative breast cancer, which accounts for 10 to 20 percent of all breast cancers according to breastcancer.org.

In June Gulley celebrated her five-year anniversary as a cancer survivor. She returned to the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Zion, Illinois for a ceremony that included planting a tree in her honor.

“It was a wonderful celebration. We visited other cancer patients and talked with them,” she explained with a note of joy in her voice.