Meet Lindsey. On April 21, 2025, she noticed a lump in her breast and immediately called her doctor, who ordered a mammogram with ultrasound. A week later, she got a call no one wants to get: She had cancer.
“It felt like the entire world was falling down on me,” she said.
Lindsey — a 38-year-old mother of two who lives in Madras — was diagnosed on May 6 and started her treatment June 6. The 30 days in between, she said, are a blur of uncertainty and fear. One thing she does remember is talking with her husband before her first appointment with her oncologist, Dr. Natasha Tiffany of the St. Charles Cancer Institute.
“I remember telling (him), ‘I don’t think I can do this. I think I’m too small. I’m too weak. I’m not strong enough to do this.’ And he’s telling me, ‘Yeah, you can,’” Lindsey said. “But (Dr. Tiffany) walks in and I’m crying, and she says, ‘How’s it going?’ And I said, ‘It’s not going.’”
Tiffany reassured Lindsey that she was in good hands, and that her care team would do everything they could to make her better.
“(She said), ‘You are strong enough. You can do this.’ And then she said, ‘Can I hug you?’” Lindsey recalls. “I said yes, and she … gave me a full big hug and said, ‘It’s going to be OK.’”
Eventually, Lindsey had 16 rounds of chemotherapy, surrounded by a team of caregivers who made her feel seen and safe and “empowered to keep going,” she said. And these days, she’s trying hard to live life to the fullest, to not be fazed by everyday irritants and to prioritize the things that truly matter, she said.
And when she looks back on her experience, she zeros on that hug from Dr. Tiffany as the turning point in her cancer journey.
“That’s the one thing that stands out to me the most because I didn't feel like she was just my doctor at that point. I felt like she was my friend and she had my back,” she said. “She truly made me feel good when I was at my darkest point.”
Learn more about the St. Charles Cancer Institute.
