No one expects to get sick. No one wakes up one morning and says, “I think I’m ready to handle getting cancer.” Certainly no one expects to be diagnosed with breast cancer at 38, but that is exactly what happened to Lufkin resident, Jessica Knight.
Knight was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in November 2012 after going for a routine breast exam.
“I was just in shock in the beginning. Here I am happily married, finally, and I have a son that’s about to be 16, a 16 year old step-son, and another step-son with a son himself,” she recalled. “When I told my son about the cancer, I said, ‘Dalton, I’m going to be OK. I have no choice but to be OK, so I can be here with you.'”
Within the next few weeks after being diagnosed, Knight’s doctors started treatment to attack the cancer, with hopes to beat the disease. She would soon go through 12 weeks of chemotherapy called Taxol once a week, and then eight weeks of a particularly potent drug nicknamed the “Red Devil” every other week to target the specific mass. She described it as being very difficult, and even once spent five days in the hospital because of an infection from the medicine.
Knight recalled her first chemo treatment and described it as a “very emotional point.” She said even though she thought she was ready, she was still shaken by the experience.
“I thought, you know, I’m going to do this. I’m going to fight this,” Knight said. “Then two days later, I’m sitting in a recliner with a bunch of people, and they’re about to start treatment. I was very emotional. I cried a lot during that day.”
Throughout her treatment, Knight was able to continue working at Abeldt’s Pharmacy determined with an attitude to not let cancer take away her life.
“I still had a life to live. I didn’t want to just sit back and sulk,” she said. “I had to be OK. I had no other choice but to be OK.”
Before having a double Mastectomy summer 2013, Knight was told by her doctors that she would need to go through more chemo because the mass appeared to not have shrunk as much as they wanted it to. Fortunately, they were wrong – the mass had shrunk. She was cleared of cancer June 6, 2013 when she had a double Mastectomy with the beginning of reconstruction. Finally, in November 2013 she completed reconstruction, a week before Thanksgiving and a year after her first diagnosis.
“I’m about to reach my four year mark, and I can’t believe it’s been four years. It’s just flown by,” she said. “I feel awesome. I feel great.”
Knight said “strength of self and family” got her through the difficult experience of beating breast cancer.
“I just told myself I had to be strong, and it wasn’t just me,” she said. “My friends were strong for me, my family was strong for me.”
Now, Knight works for a nonprofit organization The Rose, funded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, to help uninsured women prevent and treat breast cancer.
Working in Angelina County, Nacogdoches County, Orange County, and Trinity County, Knight assists women get mammograms and other related prevention and treatment. She has helped establish mobile units in each county, and she truly believes The Rose has and will continue to help many women in East Texas.
“If there’s someone who hears me and can be helped by my experience,” she said, “I will help.”
