Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

Joyce Facey (second right) , 75-year-old breast cancer survivor enjoys a moment with Delroy Angus, (left) husband of Marcia Angus (daughter), daughter Marcia and son Horace Tyrell. - Roger Robinson/Freelance Photographer

When 75-year-old Joyce Facey lost her daughter to breast cancer 13 years ago, little did she know that she would be diagnosed with the disease a few years later.

But despite this double dose of misfortune, she has found the strength and commitment to help others overcome the challenges of the illness.

Ms. Facey, a former dressmaker, was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago.

Today, she makes prosthesis breasts and gives them to women who have had mastectomies.

She told The Sunday Gleaner last week that her daughter, Sharon O'Connor, noticed a lump in her breast when she was 29 years old and pregnant with her first child.

She said doctors told her that it was not malignant and she could breastfeed when the child was born. The lump, they said, would eventually go away.

Breastfeeding

When this did not happen, the lump was removed six months after breastfeeding. At that time, it was found to be malignant.

Ms. Facey said her daughter had a choice between mastectomy (removal of the breast) and lumpectomy (removal of a lump in the breast). She chose the latter. However, months after, Ms. O'Connor started feeling ill and it was discovered that the cancer had spread to her lungs. She died at age 31.

This devastated her mother, who fell into a state of depression. Just as she was trying to pick up the pieces and move on, Ms. Facey was told she too had breast cancer.

"When I found out that I had breast cancer everything (my daughter's death) came back but I decided not to cry. I would say it was sobering to face reality," she said during an interview at her daughter's home in Drax Hall, St. Ann.

She went ahead and did the mastectomy. Just before her operation, Ms. Facey said she went to the bathroom, looked at her breast and said:

"Breast, we are going to part company today. you helped me with my six children, and you made me look good, but we have to part."

A jovial Ms. Facey, who celebrates her birthday today, added:

"I am alive and I am so glad. I am going to enjoy it till I die."

She said survival was not possible without the unwavering support of her children and members of her former church in St. Mary.

Ms. Facey has turned her negative experiences into positives. Currently, she is the main counsellor of Women at Real Risk (WARR), a breast cancer support group based in her hometown of Highgate, St. Mary. The group has reached out to more than 70 breast cancer survivors since its inception in 2001.

Statistics reveal that there are about 46 new cancer cases per 100,000 of the population each year.

But what gives Ms. Facey, a member of the Family Church on the Rock in St. Ann, the drive to reach out?

"I don't know, but I just can't sit down there and do nothing, and getting this opportunity to go out there and talk to people has helped me to know that I am helping somebody," she said.

October was recognised as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but Ms. Facey believes not enough is being done to heighten public awareness.

She suggested that the awareness period should be year-long, and urged Government to move speedily to make the drug for breast cancer survivors more affordable.