Editor’s Note: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to www.cancer.org the American Cancer Society website upwards of 298,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women during 2023 in the United States. Of those about 43,700 women will die from breast cancer. Each Thursday during October this publication will feature a breast cancer survivor’s story from Simpson County. We extend a special thanks to Miller Family Care for sponsoring the series.
The American Cancer Society states that there is a one in eight chance for a woman to develop breast cancer in her lifetime. From a personal perspective that means if a woman has a circle of at least eight female friends, one of them likely will develop breast cancer. I know at least six friends and family that have fought this killer and survived.
One such friend is Bebe Ashley. We met in 2013 and instantly connected. She is a woman of God whose faith and love for Him pours out in all she does. Bebe is quick to say her fight and survival is all due to Him.
Her initial diagnosis came in October of 2016. She and husband Ty made drastic lifestyle changes earlier in the year when Bebe resigned from Boswell and Ty took a physical therapist position with a traveling home health company. They sold their house, put furniture in storage, purchased an RV and truck to pull it, and went on the road with the first stop in Alabama. They stayed three months before moving to the Delta. It was there Bebe found a lump during a self-exam. “It was large enough that I felt it easily when I found it. We had lived there may be a month when I found it.”
It was a fast growing cancer as there was no evidence from her women’s wellness exam in January the same year. “By the time they found it, it was pretty far along. I can’t tell you what kind because I don’t keep up with that. It was Stage 4 but it was a very common kind” and very treatable.
For the next year their lives revolved around chemotherapy, surgery and radiation treatments. Bebe came through them with flying colors and cancer free according to her PET scan. However, she added, “I did not do the gong when I finished radiation because I did not feel like I had come to the end of my journey.”
They spent 2018 in Tupelo living life which included visits to Jackson for checkups. Bebe had always wanted to return home to Hernando to be close to her parents. Tupelo was better than Magee at only an hour and a half away. In 2019 God had other plans. “God told us to come back here because of Legacy Church. God knew before we knew that I needed to be back down here closer to the doctor. God knew.”
Ty and Bebe settled in to life in Magee. Then Covid hit. “In 2020 everybody had a low grade of stress all the time. I was taking care of my aunt’s estate because she passed away at the end of 2019. Every time I’ve had cancer stress caused it, I do believe. The very first time we were moving; I thought I had six months but I had six weeks to move by myself to clean the house out. I think that’s why the cancer grew so fast. Then it happened again at the very beginning of 2021. I had cancer in my bone so I had to go and have surgery done for that,” Bebe explained. It was the same kind of cancer as the previous breast cancer.
She had surgery in March 2021; doctors put a plate and screws in her hip. In addition, Bebe began another round of chemo treatments. Then in 2022 the plate came apart resulting in surgery in July to place a rod followed by a third surgery due to the rod breaking. In October Bebe had her left hip replaced. In December she had another PET scan that revealed brain cancer.
This latest diagnosis has been the most debilitating of her journey. Bebe had no surgery but did have radiation treatments which left her out of it she and Ty said. “I will say radiation on your brain is different from radiation on other parts of your body because I’ve had radiation on two other parts. The brain one is … Ty will tell you there were just weeks that I just sat here.” Ty said he worried about her the whole time. All she could eat was ice cream and Rice Krispies.
She continued, “I’m not just surviving; I’m thriving! I really am. Believe me I know what it is just to survive because earlier this year I was literally just surviving. It was so weird when I went to have the blood clots out. That morning I was going to get up and have a treatment. I got up and I couldn’t catch my breath. I knew there was something wrong. I wasn’t driving then and my mother-in-law was going to take me to my treatment. When she got here we went on to Jackson. When they took my oxygen it was 80 something.” She stayed in ICU for three days. But the craziest part was after not eating for so long she started eating and the hospital food tasted good to her.
And thriving she is. Bebe travels every three weeks to visit her father in Hernando. She teaches a Wednesday morning Bible study, nationally known D-Group and has done so since the days of Covid. She recently resumed her volunteering with the Overflow Food Pantry. In addition, Bebe attends a Wednesday night Bible study. Together she and Ty attend a Thursday night small group through Legacy Church led by their pastor, Jacob McKenzie.
“Before I was diagnosed death is like in the distance, blurry but in the distance. But when death comes face to face with you, your life changes. I just don’t know how people do this without God. I don’t see how they do it. I remember when I was going through chemo at night in bed alone I mean I wasn’t alone Ty was with me – but I was alone because it’s just me inside my head. At night when it’s just you, I said you’ve got to know that you know. I knew that I knew but I really knew that I knew after that! In the dark nights God was just always there. I never felt alone.”
“It’s like I’m a crumpled up leaf floating on a big river of God’s love. I’m not climbing mountains, I’m not doing anything. I’m just letting Him take me where He wants to take me…because that’s where I want to go anyway!”
