GAIL WHITE She conquered breast cancer 44 years ago

October is an important month for Irene Nock of Youngstown.
On the 9th of the month she celebrates her birthday. Seventy-nine times she has celebrated her birth.
On the 22nd of the month, she celebrates a rebirth of her life as a survivor of breast cancer. Irene has celebrated this victory over death 44 times, making her the longest-living breast cancer survivor in the Valley.
Back in 1958, Irene, a young mother of three children, began to notice irregularities in her left breast.
"I felt little lumps on the side," she recalls.
She shared her findings with her doctor. Unalarmed, the doctor told her to keep checking the area, assuming little about the lumps.
"They didn't go away," Irene explains. "They were kind of hurting."
After a month, Irene returned to the doctor. He referred Irene to a surgeon that very day.
Two days later, on Oct. 22, 1958, Irene underwent breast cancer surgery.
"Back then, it was very shocking," Irene says. "Everybody thought I was going to die."
Her daughter, 6 years old at the time, remembers her mother leaving for the hospital.
"Oh, how grandma cried," Irene remembers her daughter telling her.
Surgery
Irene had a radical mastectomy. Her left breast was removed along with several lymph nodes from under her arm.
Four days after her surgery, Irene's doctor wanted to remove her ovaries to eliminate the possibility that the cancer would spread to her reproductive system.
The difficult decision came easy for Irene.
"I have three children and I want to live to see them grow up," she responded to her doctor.
Irene has not only seen her children grow up, but her grandchildren as well.
"I have two great-grandchildren," she says with pride.
Irene is indeed fortunate to have survived a disease that killed most women of her day. Yet, there is more to her longevity than luck.
"I went for an X-ray every year," Irene explains. "There were no mammograms back then."
Three years after her mastectomy, an X-ray revealed a spot on Irene's lung.
"There is always that fear that the cancer will come back," Irene says. "It turned out to be a cyst."
The scare made Irene even more dedicated to her yearly check-ups.
"I have had a mammogram every year since they have had them," she says with pride.
Through the years, several of Irene's cousins in New Jersey were diagnosed with breast cancer. The family now has a chart of all the women diagnosed with the disease. Many have not survived.
Gratitude
"Every time I go to the doctor and they say I am OK, I thank God. Every time," she says.
The importance of Irene's dedication to her yearly check-ups hit close to home 10 years ago.
"My sister didn't believe in going to the doctor," Irene says, with a hint of anger in her voice. "She was stubborn."
Irene's sister, Mary, had breast cancer that went undiagnosed and untreated. By the time she went for a check-up, it was too late.
"She only lived a year," Irene says sadly. "It went in her back and spread everywhere."
Decades earlier, Irene had beaten the odds and survived breast cancer.
In a day and age when the odds were in her sister's favor, "stubbornness" and the neglect of a simple check-up cost Irene's sister her life.
"Get over there and get examined," Irene demands. "Don't wait around."
Coming from a woman who beat all odds and has become the longest-living breast cancer survivor in our area, it is advice not to be ignored.
gwhite@vindy.com
UOctober is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. If you do not have a regular physician or are uncertain about having a mammogram, call the American Cancer Society at (330) 533-0546.