Cancer is a disease that has uncontrollable growth and spreads abnormal cells, which ignore signals to stop dividing or to die. About 1 in 8 U.S. women (approximately 13%) will develop invasive breast cancer in their lifetime. Those with family members who have had cancer are more susceptible to getting cancer themselves.
“I was diagnosed with invasive ductile carcinoma, stage three,” english teacher Alyscia Ellis said. “It was a large size, a very aggressive cancer, and it had spread to my lymph nodes.”
Discovering being diagnosed with cancer is possibly one of the worst things to happen. Though the mortality rate has decreased by 44% over the past three decades, cancer is still dangerous and harms most everyone who is diagnosed with it.
“I was diagnosed on Halloween. Which was crazy. I knew, I absolutely knew, I just didn’t have any doubt in my mind when I found the lump,” Mrs. Ellis said.
Approximately 9.7 million people died from cancer worldwide in 2022. In the United States, an estimated 618,120 people are expected to die from cancer in 2025, which averages to over 1,600 deaths per day. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, with roughly 125,000 to 130,000 projected annual deaths in the US.
“It was a shock, to be sure. I think on the one hand, you know that this is a disease that can be terminal, and you might lose your partner, and the love of your life. But I don’t know if I ever allowed myself to completely accept that,” husband Mark Ellis said.
Married cancer patients have a significant survival advantage, with studies indicating they are 20% less likely to die from their disease compared to unmarried patients. This is because about 15% to 25% of people diagnosed with cancer experience clinical depression.
“I didn’t want to gradually lose my hair, I wanted to be in control, so my stylist came after my first chemo, and she was gonna shave my head. Mr. Ellis sat down first, and she shaved him bald. And then she shaved me,” Mrs. Ellis said.
But sometimes, having to go through cancer doesn’t mean having to be at your best constantly. Fighting through this detrimental disease is hard, and having to keep up a happy face, a happy presence, is even harder.
“She said, everyone constantly telling her to be a fighter, everyone was constantly telling her, you’re strong. You’ve got this, and she said, no one gave her the opportunity to be vulnerable,” Mr. Ellis said, “No one gave her the chance to say, it’s okay, if you don’t feel like you can get out of bed today. It’s okay if you have no strength at all. You can be that if that’s what you are today. So if I had to through it again, I would be a better communicator and a better listener.”
However, no matter how much you can try to plan for the potential future, just the thought of it can be something that ruins the happiness of everyone involved.
“The threat that it will come back is something that hangs over her every day of her life. So is she cancer free right now? Yes, absolutely, she is. But it never goes away, right? there is a decent probability that it will happen again,” Mr. Ellis said
Though the thought of it returning is a plaguing thought. They are are fighting hard to completely overcome cancer, both the disease and the sadness it’s caused.
“Every day I would leave school, have radiation, and then come back to school,” Mrs. Ellis said. “I do take medication every day, but I’ll take it for a 50% potential reduction in the possibility of my cancer returning, I’ll take all those changes and get to be here.”
