The heart of a warrior

AT 19 years old, Latoya Jones was excited to begin enjoying her college life. As fate would have it, however, the university student was about to embark on the longest, hardest journey of her life — her fight with breast cancer. Now 38 years old and still receiving treatment, Jones is still in the ring and fighting the disease with the heart of a warrior.

She shared her story as one of six women whose breast cancer journeys are featured as part of Sagicor Group Jamaica’s Together We Can Survive breast cancer awareness campaign. This initiative aims to highlight the journeys of breast cancer survivors and warriors, honour the fallen, and encourage women to conduct regular self-exams and get screened early for breast cancer.

Throughout her childhood, Jones had a peculiar but painless lump on her chest that remained there throughout her teenage years. It wasn’t until she woke up one night in pain that she was rushed to the hospital and the breast examined, and it was later confirmed that she had stage two breast cancer.

“At that age, breast cancer had never even crossed my mind, because I thought of it as something that affected older people,” Jones said in reflection. Still in disbelief about the condition, Jones shortly thereafter had all the tissue removed from the affected breast and began treatment, and later had the breast reconstructed.

She went on to become a teacher and give birth to a son, despite being told by doctors that she was infertile, and Jones was confident that she would have been able to put the cancer behind her and move forward. But the disease returned three years later, and this time it had advanced to stage 4.

“When it came back, it was extremely aggressive,” she recalled. “The cancer had spread to other parts of my body, so I now had secondary breast cancer, and it started doing a lot of things to me.”

Two critical organs to which the cancer had spread were her lungs and brain. Due to a tumour in her brain, Jones suffered debilitating ailments over the years, such a stroke that rendered her immobile, blindness, deafness, and loss of speech.

“The cancer took away almost everything,” the warrior lamented. “When my son was graduating from basic school, I couldn’t attend his graduation, because I was so sick. It was very difficult for me because he was very young, but it also pushed me to keep fighting because I wanted to see him excel. I wanted to see him do well. I had to live for my son.”

As she went through various treatments, Jones clung tightly to her Christian faith, her love for her son, and the tremendous outpouring of support that she received from her family and friends.

“My husband has been a tower of strength,” she said, smiling. “He and I started dating after I was diagnosed with cancer, and he stuck by me throughout the worst of it, and we got married many years later. My family and friends also pooled their resources together. God placed them all in my life, and he has been using them to bring me through this journey.”

Though she is still receiving routine treatment, Jones is happy that the tumour in her brain shrunk enough to allow the restoration of her senses, and she is once again able to live independently and care for her son, who is now 17. Though she is yet to be declared cancer-free by doctors, Jones is happy to be alive and in good health.

“I still go through my battles on my journey,” she said in reflection. “I’m still on medication, and next month I have to go overseas for another check-up. But right now, I am just giving God thanks that I am alive and I am well. I am giving thanks that each step of the way I have the saviour with me, and I am living each day as if it is my last,” she said joyfully.

As a veteran in the ring, Jones uses her fight to encourage women who are newly diagnosed with the disease, and also to urge other women to be vigilant when it comes to breast cancer.

“I had my lump from childhood, but I didn’t know better and neither did my family. We know now that cancer is not an ‘old people’ disease, so it’s important to always check,” she said. “If you are young and you feel a lump that feels different in your breast or under your armpit, get it checked out by a doctor. Don’t wait until the stage that it was with me. And as soon as you’re 40, start doing your mammograms.”

Having struggled at several points to raise funds for various treatments, Jones also urged people to get insured against critical illnesses such as cancer, regardless of their age.

“Breast cancer was expensive,” she said. “At one point I had to do radiation that cost four million dollars, and my husband sold his CRV and his truck to help. I had a job but that was not enough to cover my medical expenses, and I had to stop working when I got extremely ill, and rely on family and friends to pool funds together to help. Having gone through that, I now encourage everyone to get insured.”

She added that despite the various challenges in her 19-year fight, she has never felt as if she was alone in the ring.

“I dare and cannot walk alone,” she said serenely. “When I am going through it, God just gives me the inner strength to carry me through. This journey is not easy, but I am thankful for the chance to keep fighting. This is the journey that God has given to me, so I embrace it and keep on moving.”