Barbara Martin, Middle School Assistant to the Deans, is known to teachers and students as the smiling face that always greets them in the office. Since last May, Martin has been going through so much more than any of us could have guessed, and yet she still never failed to keep the smile on her face and our spirits up.

Martin has been struggling with breast cancer for the past several months. She noticed the lump in May, and it quickly escalated from there. She was given a couple of options for surgery after being diagnosed, and she ultimately chose to get a double mastectomy. The surgery went well, and was followed by a long six weeks of recovery.

When she was first diagnosed with ductile carcinoma, Martin didn’t know that chemotherapy would be a part of her recovery. But because her cancer has a high recurrence rate, chemotherapy was her best option. Martin had four rounds of chemo, which she claimed was worse than the mastectomy. Martin knew that chemotherapy affects everyone differently, and so the uncertainty was probably the scariest part for her. She was still in recovery from her surgery when she started the chemo treatment, which made every little action even harder for her. But thankfully, it was only a low dosage.

Martin explains that chemotherapy isn’t exactly painful, but “it’s just all the little things that affect your body,” that make life more difficult. Being restricted from being able to do tasks that used to be simple can feel frustrating or debilitating. 

 Martin describes her recovery period as pure boredom; she couldn’t walk the dog, she couldn’t raise her arms, open a tightly closed bottle, and other efforts that were once an everyday occurrence.

Now that Martin has finished chemo, the regrowth of her hair is a big milestone that she’s looking forward to. She’s also excited to get as back to normal as possible, like getting her taste back and her stomach feeling well. Her bucket list includes returning to activities she loves such as playing tennis, playing pickleball, and going on walks. She also misses her summer travels, which she often enjoyed using her benefits from her time as a Delta flight attendant. So staying in Atlanta during the summer was a big change for her.

For Martin’s children, hearing the news of their mother’s diagnosis was obviously hard, especially after they unfortunately had lost their father to a heart attack when they were only ten and twelve years old. Despite their worries, Martin’s son and daughter were there to support their mother. Martin’s daughter, who lives in Atlanta, would go to doctor’s appointments with Martin and help with daily needs, while her son supported her from Auburn. 

Ms Martin has also relied heavily on friends during this difficult time. From the start, she took three of her friends to the oncologist with her. Throughout her journey, her friends would come over and walk the dog, or just assist her with anything she needed. The Westminster community was also very supportive; everybody pitched in and knew when she would be away from school, so that they could make sure she wouldn’t have to catch up on work when she came back.

From her first diagnosis, Ms Martin has had a plan. She just told herself, “Okay, this is what we’re gonna do. I’ve gotta knock it out.” Martin continued fighting and doing what her team of doctors and her support network told her to. “I love my team,” she says.

Even with this support, Ms Martin states that the hardest aspect of her journey through breast cancer has been keeping up socially. She says that some of her relationships have been affected, and she is currently working on some of them right now. But most of her closest friends haven’t given up on her.

The experience has changed Martin’s perspective on cancer. “I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is that breast cancer is so prevalent.” She says that every time she talks to a friend or a coworker, they tell her they know somebody else who has been diagnosed as well. “So many people are diagnosed with breast cancer and have to go through this process, and it seems, you know, just doesn’t seem right. I’m sure procedures and everything have gotten better over time, but we still have breast cancer.” Martin has never been the kind of person to ask, “why me?” She says, “Sometimes you can kind of sit there and think, okay, another day in the life, dealing with stuff, but there’s always something going on with everybody somewhere, somehow, that you just don’t know about.”