Category: Survivorship

Rashad Hayes answers questions about his cancer journey and experience as a patient of the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.

In November 2020, retired Chief Master Sergeant Patrick McCrocklin visited the medical center at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., where he assumed he would be treated for a hernia. He actually had two hernias, but doctors also found two mysterious spots on his liver. MRI and PET scans revealed stage 4 colorectal cancer that had spread to his liver, and he was given just six months to live.

Providing comprehensive care for patients during their cancer journey includes helping them maintain their mental well-being – before, during, and after treatment. To help meet that need, the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB (OCCC) hosts online support groups for patients with specific types of cancer, as well as a new group for those with any type of cancer.

In 2014, Edith Surles Lonon of Montgomery, Alabama, noticed swollen lymph nodes along her neck. She was recovering from shoulder replacement surgery, following doctor’s orders for physical therapy. Little did she know she had a far more serious journey ahead.

The summer before Cameron Monistere started his senior year, he felt a lump in his throat. This was not the anxiety-induced, metaphorical kind. It was a physical one on his lymph node.

When Beth Curles was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 1997, she notified only her close family. As an elementary school teacher in a small town in Georgia, she worried her community might stigmatize her diagnosis and treat her differently. For more than 15 years, she quietly battled her disease, until she was brought to the Center for Clinical and Translational Science’s Clinical Research Unit based at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  

Nearly 32 years ago, Jeana Nesmith Russell was beginning her dream career as a nurse in one of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s hospital units while pursuing her graduate degree.

National Cancer Survivors Day was Sunday, June 5. As frightening as a cancer diagnosis most certainly can be, the good news is that survival rates continue to improve, the number of cancer survivors continues to grow and the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham has resources to help patients even after they are cancer-free.

On Dec. 19, 2019, Jennifer Hanna, M.D., Clinical assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Hospitalist with UAB Hospital Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was diagnosed with breast cancer after a biopsy for abnormal calcifications.  

Four days after Matthew Snowden, 38, found out his wife was pregnant with their second child, he received some news he never thought he would hear — an oral cancer diagnosis.

For young children, hospitals with their noises, alarms and constant bustling of people can be intimidating. For Serenity Lane, hospitals became her second home when she was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 4.

Opelika, Alabama’s first female firefighter, Charlotte Patterson, has been putting out fires for more than 25 years. However, in May 2017, Patterson learned she would be fighting a new fire — endometrial cancer.

Cancer survivor Leslie Hamilton makes a habit of purchasing a special license plate each year that supports a worthwhile cause. Her 2019 tag, however, was a UAB Blazers plate with a direct message to the UAB Medicine doctor who treated her: gynecologic oncologist Warner Huh, MD. She chose IOHUH1, which is license-plate shorthand for, “I owe Huh one”. When the tag expired, she presented it to Dr. Huh as a gift of appreciation.

UAB Medicine patient Steadman Harrison is a one-year cancer survivor. He says that his cancer journey has been a lesson in patience, the value of family support, and personal faith.

Rehabilitation therapy helps people recover from many medical conditions, such as stroke, heart attack, and injury. Rehab for patients with cancer is equally valuable, but it isn’t often used in the United States. The new Cancer Rehabilitation Program, developed by physicians in the UAB Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, seeks to change that at UAB Medicine.

As an active member on the Advisory Board of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB, Susan Bishop Williams advocates for the highest quality of care for cancer patients and their families. However, she says she never fully understood the challenges associated with cancer treatment until she received her own cancer diagnosis.

Edward E. Partridge, M.D. and Barbara Partridge were honored honored by the Estes family for their exceptional contributions to the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Valerie Powell credits her job at UAB for discovering and treating her cancer.

Oral cancer is not just a disease of smokers and drinkers. Learn about this young mother’s journey to become cancer free.

In February 2017, Karen Warnock felt a cringe-worthy flare of back and hip pain. Walking was difficult and excruciating. The consensus among friends and family? Sciatica was the culprit.

Backpacking is hard enough without a softball-sized tumor in your leg. Not that it stopped JC Cunningham from tackling a section of the Appalachian Trail near Wesser, North Carolina, last Memorial Day. His hiking partner — a physician — had other thoughts. 

Nurses at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are known for providing exceptional care and going above and beyond for their patients. Brenda Peoples, a patient undergoing acute leukemia care in UAB’s Hematology/Oncology unit, experienced just how far her nurses were willing to go to bring her and her boyfriend a special moment of happiness that could impact them for a lifetime.

Frank Baker never thought he would have the word “cancer” associated with his name. Baker, a former major league baseball player with the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles, had never even been admitted to a hospital before. That changed in March 2018.

It took a harrowing diagnosis of aplastic anemia, two unsuccessful chemotherapy treatments, 50 blood transfusions, more than 25 platelet injections, and almost three years and 4,650 miles before Talladega, Alabama, native Jimmy Roberson could meet who he says is his angel here on Earth.