BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Lake Butler Hospital held its fourth annual Breast Cancer Awareness Luncheon under tents in front of its Main Street facility on October 16.
The event featured a catered lunch, door prizes, and four speakers who shared advice and personal experiences from their encounters with the disease, which claimed around 10 lives in Union County in 2023, according to the latest available data.
Union County’s death rate is triple the state average
The Florida Department of Health reports that breast cancer death rates in Lake Butler and the surrounding area, 60 deaths per 100,000 people, are more than three times higher than the state average.
The event’s first speaker, Jennifer Woodard, Director of Community Outreach and Engagement at UF Health’s Cancer Center, said breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Florida and nationwide.
“But here’s the part that gives me hope,” she continued. “When it’s found early, it’s one of the most treatable cancers. The five-year survival rate is over 99% when it’s detected before it spreads.”
Woodard said women living in rural areas tend to get diagnosed later, not because they don’t care, but because screening can be hard to get to.
“Sometimes the nearest mammogram site is an hour away,” she said. “Sometimes there’s no transportation or insurance. Sometimes it’s just not knowing where to start or being afraid of what you might find. Those barriers are real, but so is our power to change that as neighbors, as families, and as a healthy community. When we make breast cancer screening easier, more comfortable, and more normal to talk about, we save lives. Plain and simple.”
Tilt the odds in your favor
Woodard provided a task list for women to tip the odds in their favor, like getting annual screenings beginning at age 40.
“Do you have any family history or any other risk factors?” she asked. “Talk to your doctor. They may start your screening earlier. Make sure there’s a clinical breast exam in all of your regular checkups.”
“Most importantly,” she advised, “know your own body. “If you notice any changes, call a doctor: a lump in your breast or underarm, a nipple that turns inward or has unusual discharge, redness, dimpling, or any texture changes, changes in size or shape, persistent pain or swelling. These don’t always mean cancer, but they do mean it’s good to get checked out.”
Woodard advised audience members to stay active.
“Even 30 minutes of walking helps every day,” she said. “Eat colorful foods, more fruits, vegetables, and less processed meats. Maintain a healthy weight, limit alcohol, don’t smoke, and most importantly, stay connected.”
Woodard said that when women stay connected through family and faith, they make better choices for themselves.
Low-cost, accessible screenings
The speaker said women in Union County have several options for low-cost, accessible screenings.
“At the forefront of UF Health’s efforts is the Mobile Cancer Screening Connector,” she said. “A 40-foot mobile unit traversing North Central Florida, it provides on-site mammograms, cervical, prostate, and colorectal screenings—bringing care directly to underserved areas.
She emphasized that the people aboard the screening connector, the navigators and community health workers, are more vital than the equipment on the mobile unit.
“They help explain results,” she said. “They do the scheduling. They help with follow-up. Screening is important, but trust is everything.”
She also said the Florida Department of Health, which has a Lake Butler clinic, runs a Florida breast and cervical cancer early detection program,
Woodard encouraged audience members to spread the word about the importance of breast cancer screening.
“Share what you learned today,” she said. “When I think about the women who caught their cancer early and are alive today because they took that step, it reminds me that awareness truly works. We can’t change everything about cancer, but we can change the story through action, access and compassion.”
Turning tragedy into action
Larry Mendlow, a board member of the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation, recounted his wife’s battle with the disease and explained how her death spurred him to join the fight against breast cancer.
The Jacksonville resident said he and his wife moved to Florida in 2009.
“My wife had always gone in for mammograms,” he recalled, “and that first December we were in Florida, she went in for hers and they discovered a lump. She went in for further tests, and they discovered not only was it breast cancer, but it had metastasized already. Within two years, she had passed away.”
Mendlow said he resolved to prevent the disease from claiming more lives and found the foundation to be the best vehicle for fulfilling that goal.
He said the foundation operates under the radar. While advocating for legislation favorable to cancer prevention and treatment, the organization primarily funds other grassroots groups that deliver services to patients and survivors. The foundation also funds public education campaigns about breast cancer and provides direct financial support to those undergoing treatment.
“One of the reasons I’m here,” he concluded, “is that breast cancer affects more than just the person who has it. It affects their whole family, it affects their spouse, it affects their children, it affects their siblings.”
He added that when women schedule mammograms, it is not only an act of self-preservation, but also an act of love for the people they care about.
Go early. Go now. Go every year.
Michelle Green, a 60-year-old teacher and five-year survivor, shared her journey as the ultimate “poster child for early detection.”
Green said she was diagnosed at 55 with no family history of cancer.
She added that because she had been getting mammograms on a regular basis, her physician detected a slight difference in a January 2020 scan compared to the previous mammogram.
“Because of that previous mammogram and because of the baseline, the doctor said she could tell that tiny, tiny, tiny, slight difference,” she said.
Green added that because her cancer was caught at such an early stage, the physician described it as a speedbump.
After a biopsy in February and surgery the following month, and then 21 days of radiation, subsequent screenings confirmed she was cancer-free.
“So go early,” she said of cancer screenings. “Go now and go every year.”
If there is a valley, there must be a mountain
The event’s final speaker, Marissa Thompson, told the audience she is in the middle of her fight with the disease and is facing a bilateral mastectomy, 25 rounds of radiation, and maintenance therapy.
“But guess what,” she told the crowd. “I am still here.”
“There were certainly days that I wanted to give up,” she added, “but my amazing (support) team, they wouldn’t let me. More importantly, God simply said, this is not how your story ends. I need you to be a living testimony that cancer isn’t the conqueror, but Christ is the undefeated champion.”
The 32-year-old said that when she and her husband first heard the diagnosis, peace overcame the initial fear that gripped her.
“I remember sitting in a paralyzed silence and watching the tears stream down my husband’s face,” she recalled. “And although fear wanted to cripple me, there was an unusual peace, one that surpassed understanding.”
Thompson said that even before she noticed a lump in December 2024, the Lord had been preparing her for the battle.
“For months, as I sat at my desk at my work-from-home job,” she said, “Psalms 23 and four were on repeat. It was as if the Lord was preparing me and reminding me that he’s faithful and that he is with me. ‘Yay. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.’”
Thompson said that her fight against breast cancer has strengthened her relationships with those around her.
“My husband and I grew closer, and he started a support group for men,” she said. “My children were even more compassionate and understanding than usual. My mother showed up, however, and whenever. A meal train was started. Prayers were coming from everywhere, and the care and support my family has received has been unbelievable.”
Thompson reminded those who are also walking through the valley of the shadow of death that the shadow is only a shadow.
“And for there to be a valley,” she added, “there has to be a mountain.”
“I don’t know if you’re in your valley,” she concluded, “coming out, or going in. But there has to be a mountain up ahead.”
