LUKE REEDER
Reporter
NASHVILLE – Loving, caring,
mom, Scrapper fan, all
words that describe Lesley
White but two words that
truly describe her are fighter
and survivor. White is a
breast cancer survivor who
can serve as an inspiration
to not give up.
It started in January of
2008 when White noticed a
knot in her left breast, “I had
had a cyst in that same spot
since I was 28 years old but
I noticed it seemed bigger
than it had been before.”
But life and her duties as a
mom got in the way of going
to the doctor when she first
noticed the difference in the
knot. White said it was the
middle of basketball season
and her two children Hannah
and Hunter were playing
in pee-wee basketball
so she decided to put off
going to a doctor because it
seemed that it was just the
cyst and nothing else. But
after basketball season came
baseball and softball season,
“Hannah and Hunter were
really big into softball and
baseball and during the summer
Hannah’s team traveled
a lot for softball so I just kept
putting it off.” White said she
drank cokes often and had
been told that caffeine could
irritate a cyst so she thought
she had no reason to stress
over the knot. “After softball
ended Scrapper football
season began and I had my
yearly mammogram in October
and I never missed my
mammogram so I decided to
just wait till then to have it
checked out.”
At her yearly mammogram
White said she was
told that something did not
look exactly right and she
then had to go back and
get an ultrasound done to
get a better idea what was
happening. “During the ultrasound
the tech brought
in the radiologist to read the
ultrasound and he told me
that he would not say that
it is cancer but whatever it
was it needed to come out
and he made me get a biopsy
to see exactly what it was,”
said White. Three days after
the biopsy was done White
went back to receive the
news she had guessed, that
the knot was cancer. White
then opted to go to Dr. Dana
Abraham in Little Rock, “I
opted to go to Dr. Dana Abraham
and she was great. She
told me that it needed to
be removed and gave me
options on different ways to
have it done and I told her to
just do a double mastectomy
because I was done having
kids.” White is a Scrapper
fan through and through
and this trait shined bright
when her surgery was being
scheduled. White said that
she plans everything around
the Scrappers being in the
finals at War Memorial, “The
first date I was given just
wouldn’t work because we
would still be playing football
and my second question
was if the surgery happened
on a Monday would I still be
able to make it to the game
on Saturday if the Scrappers
were in the finals? That is
when Dr. Abraham stepped
in and asked if she heard
me right, that I was scheduling
breast cancer surgery
around a football game and
I had to explain to her that
it wasn’t just football it was
Scrapper football!”
Throughout the entire
diagnosis to the surgery and
even afterwards White had
a strong support system.
Whether it was from her
family, her friends, or the
town of Nashville, White said
she never stopped getting
phone calls or encouraging
cards, but one encounter
that stood out was with her
brother in law Bob White,
“Bob asked me right after
I was diagnosed called and
said ‘What do you need me
to do?’ and I said I need you
to pray that through all this I
will glorify God. That was my
main concern that I would
handle the situation in a way
that glorified God and that
was also my prayer throughout
the whole process.”
White’s faith in God
helped her through her
battle. The two things that
bothered her were that she
handled things in a way that
glorified God and that she
would be able to make it to
see her kids through high
school. She said she did not
care if afterwards He still
wanted her to sweep streets
down here or sweep streets
of gold as long as she was
able to see her kids make it
out of high school.
The surgery took place
on December 8, 2008. And
then chemo started in February
with six treatments
in total three weeks apart.
Even with chemo treatments
White did not slow down,
“On Wednesday I would go
for a treatment and drive
myself back to the doctor on
Thursday for a shot to help
build up my white blood
cells and on Friday I would
not be able to get off the
couch that was my bad day.
By Saturday and Sunday I
was feeling better and on
Monday I was back in the
chicken houses working,”
explained White. White said
that even though it might
sound weird having cancer
may have been a blessing.
It helped her realize that life
is short and that she should
not sweat the little things like
if the dishes or laundry were
done before she went to
bed. She went on to say that
she never missed anything
her kids did and during this
process it really brought it
home how important things
like family were, “We live in
a very fast paced society
and people may not take the
time to tell you every day but
going through this process I
learned that people do still
care and I learned the importance
of things like family,”
said White.
White had advice for
women who may be in her
shoes and noticed an unusual
knot but decided to
put off getting it checked out
because life is getting in the
way at the moment, “Don’t
ever put it off. I kept waiting
and waiting and waiting and
I have told many a person
since then to go to the doctor
now. If you suspect that
anything at all is not absolutely
normal all they can do
is say that everything is fine.
Just don’t put it off.”
