Video: Breast Cancer Series Part 2 – Surviving Breast Cancer

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COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Though thousands of women die from breast cancer each year, there are some very brave women who actually beat the disease.

Malinda Dale is a survivor. She battled breast cancer and has been in remission since 2007. She’s having her annual check-up and still gets anxious about the results.

Dale was first diagnosed in 2006 after a lump was found in her right breast during a routine doctor’s visit. She was just 34 years old, a wife and had 3 young children to raise. She had to have two major surgeries, one being an 8-hour operation to reconstruct her breast. Dr. Alnas is her oncologist.

“In Malinda’s case, the advance of using Herceptin, which made a huge difference in certain type of breast cancer. We’re always making advances trying to make adjurent therapy. That’s the therapy that we do after surgery, better and better so it’ll reduce the change of the cancer coming back and we have to deal with advance cancer,” says Alnas.

Dale hasn’t had any recurrence of cancer since she was diagnosed but she remembers how difficult it was to continue on when she was physically drained. She says having a good attitude made a huge difference.

“Everyday no matter how bad I felt or how tired I was or how sick I was, I always tried to do everything, just so that there was normalcy even for them. You know going to baseball games, going to soccer games, going to schools and volunteering. Trying to keep everything normal so my kids would think every thing’s still ok,” says Dale.

Dale’s life is pretty normal these days. Her oldest son is in college now, she’s working at the Columbus YMCA and raising her two youngest children. She says she’ll continue to bring awareness to breast cancer and have her yearly breast exam.

For more information about breast cancer research and survivor support groups, just go to ww5.komen.org.