Research Is the Reason My Daughter Has Her Mom

After being successfully treated for triple-negative breast cancer, Kelly Ann Jones is grateful for family, friends, her care team, and the science that made her outcome possible

Normally, Kelly Ann Jones would never miss a mammogram. Because of her family history of breast cancer, she started getting yearly breast cancer screenings in her 30s and dutifully attended every appointment until 2020, when the pandemic struck and everything changed.

Kelly Ann was diagnosed with COVID-19 that March and developed pneumonia in both lungs. Because of the strain the pandemic put on the healthcare system, routine screenings like mammograms were postponed or only offered at specific locations to accommodate more urgent tests like Kelly Ann’s lung x-ray, which was deemed more of a priority. 

“There was only once place offering them and it was far from my home,” Kelly Ann said. “We were all just trying to forget about what felt like the apocalypse, so I put it off.”

When she finally got her mammogram in the beginning of 2022, the results made her heart sink.

“Lo and behold, breast cancer was there waiting for me,” Kelly Ann said.

She was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive type of the disease that tends to grow and spread quickly. TNBC also has fewer targeted treatment options, so it typically has a worse prognosis than other types of breast cancer. Outcomes are even poorer in Black women like Kelly Ann, who are more likely to develop TNBC than other groups. It’s not clear why these disparities exist, though research shows that both genetics and socioeconomic disadvantages, such as worse access healthcare, play a role.

“I wasn’t surprised to learn that racial disparities existed,” Kelly Ann said. “I’ve been Black all my life, so I know there’s always a fight for me to get whatever I want or need. I just didn’t realize how prevalent they were.”

Fortunately, Kelly Ann did have something in her favor: Her cancer was diagnosed early, at stage 1, when treatment was more likely to be successful.

“I know that everyone has heard it a million times, but early detection is key,” she said. “I’m grateful that my cancer was caught early. It hadn’t spread to my lymph nodes or surrounding breast tissue, and it could be treated it aggressively. It’s why I have healed.”

Kelly Ann fully focused on treatment immediately. She started researching surgical oncologists even before she learned the results of the biopsy her doctor ordered to confirm the diagnosis. And she knew what treatment she wanted: a double mastectomy.

But even though Kelly Ann had launched into action mode, the diagnosis still felt surreal. A single parent, she worried about how she’d take care of her four-year-old daughter, August, while going through treatment. And then there was her mother, who had had breast cancer when Kelly Ann was in college. She took Kelly Ann’s diagnosis particularly hard.

When Kelly Ann met with her surgical oncologist, who she chose for her expertise in TNBC and its impact on Black women, Kelly Ann learned that a double mastectomy wasn’t necessary. Thanks to research and advancements in surgical techniques, she was one of a growing number of breast cancer patients who could safely opt for a lumpectomy, in which only the tumor and a small margin of healthy tissue are removed from the breast. Her surgeon would also remove several of Kelly Ann’s lymph nodes as a precautionary measure.

“I had been thinking that maybe I should just throw my breasts away, like they were contaminated,” she said. “But she assured me that a double mastectomy was a bit too aggressive.”

After surgery, Kelly Ann received chemotherapy followed by radiation treatments. She lost all her hair—“It happened one night in 20 minutes!”—and the radiation burned her skin. Yet she rarely missed work, and she kept up with all of August’s activities, even going to amusement parks with her. By keeping busy, Kelly Ann was able to feel like life was somewhat normal.

“I didn’t have time to cry about my situation,” Kelly Ann said. “My daughter still wanted to know what’s for dinner and what we’re doing this weekend. But I felt blessed to have her because she kind of made me forget about cancer.”

But once August was asleep at night and Kelly Ann was alone with her thoughts, worries did take hold—ones she assumed she wouldn’t have to think about until later in life.

“I realized I didn’t have a plan for August if something happened to me,” Kelly Ann said. “Who gets her? Who’s going to do the best job raising her? These were scary thoughts I’d never contemplated before.”

Thankfully, about six months after her diagnosis, Kelly Ann was declared cancer-free and her treatment ended. While this was a huge relief, she found it difficult to celebrate the milestone with family and friends. They thought Kelly Ann was “finished” with breast cancer, but her emotional struggles were far from over.

“I had felt like a superhero during treatment because I was still doing so much,” she said. “Once it ended, everything came crashing down. I was finally feeling the emotional enormity of my experience with breast cancer that maybe I hadn’t dealt with or allowed myself to feel.”

Kelly Ann credits therapy for helping her work thorough the aftermath of treatment. She also found she could appreciate positive results of her experience—like her unbreakable bond with her daughter—though stress continues to affect her. Like so many patients, one of her biggest worries is that her cancer could recur.

“Cancer is like a visitor you didn’t invite and who never leaves because there are lingering parts of it that can stay behind,” she said. “Even making doctor appointments is difficult for me because there’s trauma there. I have to make a couple of appointments before I can go to the visit.”

One of the ways Kelly Ann copes with her experience is by being grateful: for family, friends, her doctors, and for the research that enabled her positive outcome.

“The more we study breast cancer, the better we’re able to treat it,” she said. “Thanks to research, my treatment was better than my mother’s treatment. And if—God forbid—my daughter was ever diagnosed with breast cancer in the future, I would hope that her treatment would be even better.”

Kelly Ann also encourages women—particularly Black women—to be vigilant about their health.

“I think that in the Black community, we really revere doctors, and what the doctor says goes,” she said. “But you have to know your body and what’s abnormal for you. And if it’s abnormal, you need to advocate for yourself, no matter what the doctor might say.”

Read more stories from BCRF’s Research Is the Reason storytelling initiative here.