Without early detection appointments and strategies, survivors like Vivia Hill-Silcott would not be here today. And to her, strength has a whole new meaning.
“I know my strength,” said Hill-Silcott, director of Student Success for the College of Pharmacy at UGA. “Your strength comes through asking for help.”
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and on Tuesday, a panel hosted by three student organizations was held in the College of Pharmacy to educate students on the topic.
“Statistics are showing that we are experiencing less and less deaths from breast cancer. And that is owing to the fact that we have earlier and earlier detection,” said Michelle McElhannon, Pharm.D and public service assistant at the University of Georgia.
Thirteen years ago Hill-Silcott received a clean mammogram. Just three months later, she was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.
“In September of 2012, chemo started. And I did chemo from September until December of that year. And then I took a month off,” Hill-Silcott said. “And then in February, I did a double mastectomy.”
A double mastectomy is a removal of breast tissue and is often followed with a reconstruction surgery. Once the cancer has spread to nearby lymph nodes, it may be treated but it is no longer curable, according to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Hill-Silcott donated the tissues from both her left and right breasts to a research project at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She said she doesn’t know what the project is for or how they are being used, but the one thing she does know is she needed to release them.
I needed to say goodbye to my breasts. I needed to get closure,” Hill-Silcott said. “I didn’t have any more use for them.”
Hill-Silcott said she cried on Georgia Tech’s campus when she visited, feeling the weight of her journey washing over her.
Strength is not the only thing Hill-Silcott understands differently after going through her battle with cancer. She learned a new way to live.
“I don’t care how old people think I look. I am 13 years old — because that was the day, the day of my diagnosis was the day that I discovered that I could live differently,” Hill-Silcott said. “And I started to do so. So it is not a marathon. It’s not a sprint. It is your journey.”
Sydney Palmer is a journalism major at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
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