Published: October 13, 2008 08:12 am            

Living one day at a time

After surviving three bouts with cancer over a 24-year period, Richmond resident Arlayne Francis is considered a “miracle lady” by her doctors.

Arlayne said she has learned much about living from dealing with the deadly disease.

“A lot of people, when diagnosed with cancer think, ‘This is it.’ Well, you can’t do that. You’ve got to go on with life,” she said.

Arlayne has gone on with life in a big way. She is chair of the Madison County Breast Cancer Support Group, which meets monthly and provides support and services to breast cancer patients.

She began serving on the Governor’s Breast Cancer Task Force during the administration of Gov. Paul Patton.

“It is amazing what came of that,” she said. “This includes legislation that requires insurance companies to pay for mammograms.”

When Arlayne discovered a lump in her breast back in 1980, she was 42 years old, a young mother of two sons and wife of a career officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.

“Of course I was scared,” she recalled, “but I didn’t have time to worry because we had so much going on in the family.”

The family had just returned from vacation and there were loads of laundry to be done. Arlayne taught piano lessons and ran a small business. Bert had orders from the Marine Corps to leave within two weeks for duty in Okinawa. Older son, Greg, was scheduled to go to church camp. And Bert’s brother-in-law, a former Marine, in Kansas had just died from lung cancer.

When Arlayne went to the hospital for a biopsy, Bert was away in Kansas coordinating the funeral of his brother-in-law. Since it was just a biopsy, she wasn’t all that concerned because she knew Bert would be back in a few days. In the meantime, a good friend was taking care of younger son, Aaron.

With the biopsy done, the doctor came by her hospital room to say she could go home that afternoon. But before she could leave, the doctor returned to her room accompanied by a surgeon. “When I looked up and saw them, I knew it was not good news.”

The diagnosis was breast cancer and the doctor advised a mastectomy. “They kept me in the hospital and performed the surgery the next morning,” Arlayne recalled. This was in Jacksonville, N.C., where Bert was stationed.

“When I woke up, the colonel’s wife and my business partner were there. The general’s wife came in soon to say that Bert’s orders had been changed. He would not be going to Okinawa.”

For two years, everything was fine, she said. “I went back to teaching piano, working in my business and directing the children’s choir at church.”

“Then in 1983, I discovered a lump on my sternum and I was having terrible back pain. Not only had the cancer recurred, it had metastasized to my spine,” she said. “I did not know what to do, and the doctors did not give me much of a chance.”

This was the beginning of 39 treatments of radiation while still in North Carolina. Finally, the doctor advised Arlayne and Bert to come to Lexington and consult with Dr. John D. Cronin, the eminent hematologist oncologist.

This was decision-time for the couple.

“Bert felt that we needed to be where I could be near Dr. Cronin and the treatment facilities at the Lexington Clinic,” Arlayne said.

Bert, a lieutenant colonel, retired from the Marine Corps in 1983 and the family moved to Richmond. Dr. Cronin started Arlayne on chemotherapy, and this continued for 13 agonizing months, from July 1983 to August of 1984.

In a later conversation with Dr. Cronin, he confided to Arlayne that he hadn’t given her much chance for survival. And she quipped to Dr. Cronin, “And, I thought you were trying to kill me!”

Dr. Cronin is now retired, but thousands of patients each year are treated at the Lexington Clinic’s John D. Cronin Cancer Center at Saint Joseph Office Park in Lexington.

After this amazing recovery, Arlayne became involved in the Thursday Group, a breast cancer survival group in Lexington. She says she really enjoyed the support from other breast cancer survivors and the opportunity to learn more about treatments, insurance and legislation. She got involved with the “Women-to-Women” conference that is conducted every 18 months and ended up chairing five of those sessions on breast cancer and women’s health issues.

Twenty-one busy years passed. The boys grew up. Bert opened a real estate firm in Richmond, later becoming a real estate broker. Arlayne saw a need for a breast cancer support group in Madison County and worked with others to get it going.

But, more bad news came in 2003 when she discovered another lump in her breast. In those intervening years, many advances had been made in breast cancer treatment. She had another mastectomy followed by nine months of chemotherapy.

“I was scared, but I knew I had beaten it before,” Arlayne said. “I hoped I could do it again. I had reasons to live.”

After a thoughtful pause, she continued, “I also realized if it was not meant for me to survive that I had lived a good life.”

How does a person deal with a diagnosis of breast cancer and the harsh treatments that follow? Arlayne ponders for a minute and said, “My faith and my family actually brought me through. And my friends — I have lots of wonderful friends. I know they all love me and give me support.”

Arlayne said her husband Bert deserves much credit.

“He has been wonderful. He gave up a career to bring me to a doctor.”

What advice does she have for women during Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

“Keep up your mammograms, keep your doctor’s appointments, and keep yourselves educated about health issues. And live life now!”

“You have to live in the moment,” she said emphatically. “And do something for somebody else who doesn’t know you are doing it.”

        

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