The Villages - October 2020 - 14

Valerie and
Friends!
Breast Cancer Brings
Villagers Together

There's a pound cake dusted with sugar on a platter in the center of the table. Friends
pass around a bowl of fresh fruit, sip cold water out of cobalt blue drinking glasses and
curl their hands around ceramic mugs of coffee or tea. Valerie Reading's social group
is happy, although the reason for their gathering is not. Cancer - their bond has been
forged by breast cancer, the two-word terror that's brought fear into each of their lives.
"I feel we've been put together for a reason," Valerie said. "It's funny how it happens.
It's very organic."
Valerie began hosting the group after her double-mastectomy surgery last year. An
active Villager, she's a part of the pickleball community and teaches yoga classes at MVP
Athletic Club.
Being vocal about her struggles gave others the courage and grace to do the same.
"Because I was very public with my diagnosis, people came up to me in class and
opened right up," she said. "A powerful thing happens when we share - it takes away a
lot of the fear."
There's a certain comfort in knowing someone else has been in a similar pit and
managed to scale the walls.
"Fear of the unknown can paralyze you," she said. "And you think of the worst-case
scenarios. But if you know what to expect, it feels manageable."
There are many types of breast cancer, and treatments differ based on each type, as
well as the individual health needs and desires of the patient. Every woman's journey is
unique, but each can learn from the other.
"We're in different places," Valerie said. "The ones who are ahead can say, 'Look
what I can do now,' and it helps give us hope."
And if shame were ever an issue, it falls away fast in the company of friends.
"We're not shy," said Jackie McKenzie. "We all pull up our blouses and show our scars
- we won't do that today," she said, laughing.
At the mention of scars, Valerie finds a photo on her phone.
"This was taken after my surgery," she says, showing the group. "I looked like I was
attacked by a shark. But two months later, I was dancing at my daughter's wedding."
The post-cancer wedding photo sits on a console table in Valerie's home. It's a framed
image of her in a stunning blue dress, smiling and surrounded by family.
A newer resident, Robin Cohn moved to The Villages in 2017 and didn't know a soul.
After securing a new doctor, she went for a routine mammogram.
"I had all my previous scans with me," she said. "When everyone else was getting
dressed to leave, they called me into a room to wait for the doctor. I thought maybe the
picture didn't come out well, but the doctor put my scans up from the previous years
and compared them to the new ones. He said, "There's the cancer in 2015. There it is
doubled in 2016, and here it is now."

OCTOBER 2020

Jackie McKenzie,
Valerie Reading, Nancy
Damico, Linda Truitt
and Kathy Barrett.

The Villages - October 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Villages - October 2020