It took six days in a U-Haul truck to drive from California to Dublin, Ga. Sara Faircloth was in her fifties and had no real risk factors for breast cancer and had always gotten a mammogram every year. She sits in her office at Georgia College & State University where she tells her story of needing to come home after battling breast cancer for six long months.
In February of 2000, Sara went to the doctor for her annual mammogram, but this time the doctors were baffled. Her doctor found a tumor, he thought it could not be cancer because of the small size, but he sent her to the radiologist anyway. She eventually learned that radiologists routinely find the most undetectable tumors. She considers then “the real unsung heroes.”
Her oncologist eventually performed a lumpectomy under her right arm. She remembers hearing Jimmy Buffet music and doctors and nurses talking and laughing during the procedure. As the nurses tried to keep her attention, she overheard the doctor conferring with the radiologist. The tumor was breast cancer.
During this time she lived 3,000 miles from her home here in Georgia. She had no income and no health insurance. Her family kept begging her to come home, but she decided to stay in California to undergo chemotherapy and radiation, because the cancer had spread to her first lymph node, which ultimately resulted in the doctors taking out all the lymph nodes under her right arm. With the chemo and radiation, Sara endured a long and difficult six months.
“My support system was by telephone, computer, and my daughter,” she said, recalling the six-month ordeal. “I realized that the breast cancer was not going to kill me and my intuition knew that I was going to be fine I needed to go home.”
Six days later, her daughter and best friend came to California and helped Sara pack everything she owned into a U-Haul truck. It took six days to drive across the country to Dublin. While being home, her father took care of her for the first year and after she got well, she was able to take care of him until he died. “It was a gift to be there for my dad,” Sara said.
By being back in Georgia, Sara was led to a career in nonprofits. She earned her master’s at GCSU as well as be a graduate assistant to Robin Harris, who holds a doctorate in history of science and technology. She has been at GCSU for eight years and has passion for what she does in American Humanics, a nonprofit management certification program.
“If I did not have breast cancer, I would still be in California working a passionless job,” Sara said. She still worries that cancer might one day spread.
"It is always in the back of my mind, the concern that it could spread to other parts of my body.”
After going through chemo and radiation, Sara did not realize how it affected other people around her and her support system.
“People who help you through it are as much of a survivor as you are.”
*If you are looking into working in the nonprofit field, here is the link to the American Humanics website to be apart of an amazing student organization.
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