October isn’t just the month we let our kids dress up and go from door to door getting bags full of candy. It’s also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. You’ve probably seen friends and co-workers wearing pink ribbons on their T-shirts or pink ribbons being displayed on items in grocery stores. People everywhere are doing their part to spread awareness about breast cancer.

Odds are, you probably know someone who is either currently battling breast cancer or who has battled it in the past. According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the second most common cancer in American women, with about 13% of women being diagnosed in their lifetime. The survival rates for most types of breast cancer are fairly high. Currently, there are more than 3.8 million survivors in the U.S. alone.

Linda Huckobey Goodman is one of those survivors. She sat down with me outside of her Brownwood home to tell me her survival story. She was diagnosed with cancer in her right breast in November of 2017. But it was no shock to Linda. Since 1972, she’d had to have multiple tumors and cysts removed from her breasts every year. She had stopped going to doctors appointments because it seemed that at every appointment she’d go to, she would have to have a cyst or tumor removed.

“That’s probably why mine turned into cancer,” said Linda, “because I didn’t go do my check-ups and mammograms and biopsies. Those are very painful, the biopsies. I noticed one day that my nipple was turning inward, and I knew that was a sign of breast cancer. I had told my sister that if God made a way for me to get procedures done, I would do it. I had no money and no insurance.”

In October of 2007, a month prior to her cancer diagnosis, Linda had a heart attack and could no longer work. When she began suspecting that she may have cancer, she was directed toward the Alliance for Women and Children in Abilene. They paid for her mammogram when she was diagnosed and helped pay for procedures and treatments. They also helped her sign up for medical insurance. 

When I asked Linda what her initial reaction was when she found out that she had cancer, she said, “They told me this would happen if I didn’t get those biopsies.” Then she had a good laugh. “I don’t know,” she added. “The diagnosis didn’t ever scare me. I was never afraid.”

She paused for a moment. Her tone was more serious when she spoke again. “I never even knew I would make it through it. I just kind of left it up to God. I knew that He would either help me through it, or He would be there to hold my hand.”

Linda recalled her pastor coming over to check on her shortly after being diagnosed, and she couldn’t comprehend how Linda seemed to be so accepting of her diagnosis.

“She went back and told the church, ‘well she has breast cancer but she’s just fine,'” said Linda. “They just didn’t understand. I guess it was my faith. My faith never wavered. I knew God would take care of me.”

Then she quoted Psalms 23:4. “‘Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…’ That is so true,” she said. “I felt like I got to witness that to a lot of people during my surgeries and my chemo.”

Linda had her right breast removed on December 19th of 2007. The following year in 2008, spots developed on her left breast that were suspected to be cancerous. She was told by her doctor that there were multiple cysts in her remaining breast.

“There were so many cysts that they didn’t even know which one to biopsy,” said Linda. “Removing my left breast was just one of the options, so instead of going in for another biopsy every six months, because that had been done over the years, I said ‘let’s just go for it.’ You know, I didn’t have the right one anymore anyway. ‘Just take it,'” I said.”

Linda never had to do radiation, but she did chemotherapy for six months. “Chemo makes some people very sick,” said Linda. “Every third day after chemo was administered, I would be very nauseous, but I never threw up. I had to take it easy that day and they told me whatever I did, don’t stop eating. That’s when people lose so much weight. They say just eat you a bowl of something, even if it takes you all day. One bite at a time.”

So that’s what Linda did. She stuck to a food that she grew up with that was easy to eat and that she loved, and she ate it every day throughout treatment.

“Ohhh potato soup,” Linda recalled.

“Did you eat a lot of potato soup?” I asked.

“Oh yes,” she said. “And I still love it!”

Linda’s doctors were extremely supportive, but didn’t seem to have much enthusiasm concerning her recovery. So, her sister decided that she would take her to do something that she’d never done before. She wanted to make the most of the time she had left with Linda.

“My sister asked me what I would love to do that I’ve never done before, and I said ‘well I’m not a gambler, but I would love to look at the lights in Vegas,'” said Linda. “So right in the middle of my chemo, me and my sister and her son went to Vegas.”

She then handed me an 8×10 photo in a black picture frame. I was shocked as I looked down at it. Linda was wearing a red, white and blue bandana with eagles on it. She was surrounded by three shirtless Chippendale Dancers… and there was a big smile on her face.

“That was on a boardwalk in Vegas at some booth,” said Linda. “Some women love that stuff. I’ve just never been one to do that.”

As it turns out, posing with the Chippendale dancers in a photograph was out of character for Linda. But it was something crazy to do with her sister. It was a fun memory to make. She realized there was a big possibly that she might not have had the opportunity to do anything like that again, especially if things didn’t go as she’d hoped they would.

But things did go as she’d hoped they would. “I amazed all the doctors,” said Linda. “God was on my side. I fought the red devil and I won.”

“What’s the red devil,” I asked.

“The red devil was the most powerful chemo you could take at the time. It was just a little packet of meds and they called it the red devil. If you could get through that, then you could get through anything,” she said.

Linda’s doctor told her that her cancer would come back some day, whether it be 10 years into the future or two. That was 14 years ago.

“I was told that I still have a micro cell of cancer floating around in my body somewhere that will attach to something,” said Linda. “But I don’t see that happening in my lifetime. I just really don’t.”

I asked her, “If you could give a message to anyone currently battling breast cancer, what would you say?”

“My trust in the Lord is why I had no fear,” she said. “I can’t say that I made it through because I’m a Christian, but God is a friend that I can talk to all the time. He is always there with me and he always will be. I really don’t consider myself a good Christian. I’m just a friend to Jesus and he’s my Godly father. He’s going to be there to take care of me. God wins.”

Today, Linda is still cancer free and goes about life the way she did before her diagnosis in 2007. It’s been 14 years this year since she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and there have been no signs that it may return. 

[Story by Kelly Congdon, Special Contributor to BrownwoodNews.com]