Before his mother, Nancy, was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2008, Chris Cooley didn’t know anything about the disease that would impact her, and subsequently his, life in the coming years.
“Initially, when you have someone diagnosed with breast cancer, you realize that everyone has had someone that’s close to them diagnosed with breast cancer,” Chris said. “It’s extremely common, which is extremely unfortunate. It’s scary.”
Nancy found out she had a three-inch, aggressive tumor inside her right breast, known medically as ductile carcinoma. She would eventually have a bilateral mastectomy after promptly meeting with doctors and determining a surgery plan, setting her up for the fastest track possible to be cancer-free.