Talking about her battle with breast cancer saves lives

Wantanisha Dawson-Morant at Moffitt

“When you have cancer, people look at your breast automatically as if they can see the disease from the outside,” said 39-year-old Wantanisha Dawson-Morant. “They mean well.”

Diagnosed at age 27, the mother of three pressed doctors for more scanning and answers when she first found the lump in her right breast. Since she was under the age of 40, a referral was needed for the additional testing and biopsy.

The American Cancer Society recommends that a woman obtain her first baseline mammogram at the age of 40. After that, a yearly mammogram is recommended. However, women who are at high risk for developing breast cancer may need to obtain mammograms earlier than these recommendations and at more frequent intervals.

Anxious, she called repeatedly to get test results. Without speaking a word, her mom thoughtfully shared the diagnosis.

“I never heard the words you have cancer. Instead, I saw it on my mom’s face when she met me in the parking lot at my office in Gainesville,” Dawson-Morant explained.

A close family friend, who accompanied her mother that day, grabbed Dawson-Morant’s face and began chanting, “you shall live and not die.”

“I started repeating the phrase over and over,” Dawson-Morant said. She said her mother drove Dawson-Morant to her childhood home in Ocala, where her dad, who is a pastor, prayed for her.

Diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, Dawson-Morant sought multiple medical opinions before receiving treatment at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa (Moffitt). Doctors at Moffitt told her the tumor was aggressive. They explained the type of regiments the tumor responds most favorably to and what the approach would be to treat the disease.

“I really appreciated how the doctors at Moffitt took the time to break everything down and explain the surgery and recovery to me,” she said.

Doctors told Dawson-Morant she had the Breast Cancer Gene (BRCA).

According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, BRCA1 and BRCA2 are two different genes that have been found to impact a person’s chances of developing breast cancer. Every human has both genes, but regardless of their names, these genes normally play a big role in preventing breast cancer. They help repair DNA breaks that can lead to cancer and the uncontrolled growth of tumors. Because of this, the BRCA genes are known as tumor suppressor genes.

A Moffitt report by Sara Bondell, explains mutations in the BRCA genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2) can result in increased risk of developing breast, ovarian, peritoneal, fallopian tube, and pancreatic cancers. The mutations can be passed from parent to child and account for 5% to 10% of breast cancer cases and 15% of ovarian cancer cases in women. Additionally, genetic testing may be recommended depending on your family history of cancer.

In Dawson-Morants' family, her paternal aunt was diagnosed at age 25, and died at 32. Her maternal grandmother died from ovarian cancer two years before Dawson-Morant was diagnosed.

“All I could do was think about my young kids,” emphasized Dawson-Morant.

JaNae, Wantanisha, Jay, Jr., and JaNelle

Her children, JaNelle, JaNae and Jay, Jr., were in prekindergarten and elementary school when Dawson-Morant was first diagnosed. She said her kids were active in church, sports, and other organized activities. Dawson-Morant also had a busy schedule coaching cheerleading, chairing committees for her sorority (Alpha Kappa Alpha), coordinating voters registration drives and numerous community service projects.

Dawson-Morant earned an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Florida Southern College in Lakeland, and her MBA from Saint Leo University, Tampa. She enjoys cruising and road trips, provided she’s not the driver. The complex treatment schedule after surgery forced her to suspend most of her activities.

“From July to October 2010, I spent every other week, Thursday, and Friday, at Moffitt for treatment. I would go to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, depending on how I was feeling after the chemo,” she said. “My nails turned black, I was nauseous and bloated, had neuropathy (numbness or pain) in my feet – no chemo ever again.”

She said people would offer encouraging words when they saw her. They would tell her she looked good and should be thankful to be alive.

At age 27, she thought she looked more like a 40-year-old woman. She said her thick hair would simply wash down the drain during showers. She tried wearing wigs, but they irritated her scalp. Dawson-Morant said her skin always looked ashy, and her eyebrows fell out.

In April 2011, a second surgery was performed to remove her fallopian tubes and ovaries. She said the realization of not having more children was depressing.

“I felt like everything that defined me as a woman, by no choice of my own, was gone before I was 30-years-old,” Dawson-Morant fervently shared.

The following summer, Dawson-Morant had reconstructive breast surgery. The implants have a 15–20-year lifespan. She has experienced some shoulder pain, which doctor’s determined was arthritis. And, the childhood asthma she outgrew as a teenager returned.

“Every time I go to the doctor and my blood work doesn’t come out right, immediately they send me for multiple scans,” Dawson-Morant said. “That’s always scary!”

A September 24, 2020, article published by Moffitt entitled, “Beyond BRCA: Know Your Inherited Cancer Risk,” reports there are some features that may be present in a family that would make an inherited cancer risk more likely. These include:

• Breast cancer in two or more generations

• Two or more people on the same side of the family with the same type of cancer

• A family member with more than one type of cancer

• Family members diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age (generally younger than age 50, this also applies to other types of cancer)

• A family member with a rare type of cancer (ovarian cancer)

• Certain ethnic backgrounds, like Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, in which inherited cancer risk may be more common.

Based on information compiled by the American Association for Cancer Research 2020 Report, African Americans are the second-largest racial and ethnic minority group in the United States, comprising about 13% of the U.S. population. For more than four decades, African Americans have had higher overall cancer incidence and death rates than all other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. An estimated 202,260 African Americans were diagnosed with cancer and 75,030 died from the disease in 2019 alone.

Dawson-Morant says she tells her story to others because she is proud to be a cancer survivor. She wears her battle like a badge of honor. She said there were so many things she didn’t know in the beginning about cancer that she wished she knew. The treatment destroyed her taste buds. Now she knows to add a little lemon juice to her food to take-away the metallic taste. She advises you should not make a person laugh after their surgery because it really hurts.

But it all comes back to her children. JaNelle is now 20 years old and attends Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. JaNae is a recent high school graduate at age 18. The youngest, Jay, Jr., is 13 years old and active in club sports and sports at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School in Gainesville.

And mom, Dawson-Morant, is back to her busy parenting, church, work, sorority and community service projects schedule.

“I text my daughters and their friends every month to remind them to do their monthly self-check breast exam,” she passionately said. “Know your own body.”

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