SARASOTA – “It was pretty devastating because I had found the lump myself,” says Sarasota mom Maletta Johnson.
Johnson recalls the moment her life changed in April.
“So when they told me it was breast cancer, I was shocked, but calm about it though,” says Johnson.
That calm would soon turn to a proactive urgency when faced with the decision between a mastectomy, the removal of her entire breast, or a lumpectomy, to remove the cancerous tissue only. A decision which ultimately led to another devastating discovery by her doctors.
“I did decide to have the lumpectomy, which was the removal of the cancer. And then they found cancer in my lymph node,” says Johnson.
The news shook Johnson because this diagnosis officially moved her into Stage 2 breast cancer. The 51-year-old Sarasota mother and grandmother says what so many other women say when faced with such a shocking diagnosis.
”Because you don’t think it will ever happen to you. My message to women is check, do self- exams. Go get your mammogram because we think that it won’t happen to us, but that was the best thing I think for me, they caught it early,” says Johnson.
She is a beloved by those who know her, co-workers going so far as to set up a Go Fund Me account for the Lido Beach Resort billing coordinator so she can focus on getting healthy. With October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Johnson has been selected to be our Helping Hands sponsored by Carl Reynolds Law recipient.
“You’re such an inspiration. Just your disposition, your smile as you’re going through such a difficult time just warms my heart. You’re right, get on it early. Do those self-exams, and if something’s amiss, go in and get checked out, catch it early. We’ve got to kick this cancer’s butt, I’m telling you,” says Reynolds.
Johnson’s positive nature truly radiates as she marches head on into the fight of her life. Yes, even as we filmed her for this segment, she was being treated with fluids, yet her grace never once wavered
“I try to do it with a smile, because you never know what a smile can do for somebody so I do try,” says Johnson.
A warrior in every sense of the word, on the road to recovery, one smile at a time.