Mom of Four Shares Story of Her Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Mary Royal, a 54-year-old mother of four, received a diagnosis of multicentric breast cancer in 2023, a diagnosis which followed a mammogram that she nearly skipped, she explained in an interview with CURE.

Royal sat down for a multi-part conversation with CURE to discuss her breast cancer journey. She is now a breast cancer survivor, with her and her care team utilizing Personalis’ NeXT Personal circulating tumor DNA test to check for trace fragments of tumor DNA in her bloodstream.

In the first installment of her conversation with CURE, Royal discussed life before cancer and her initial diagnosis.

CURE: Can you describe what your life was like before your breast cancer diagnosis?

Royal: I am a mother of four, I'm a wife and I work at a child advocacy center… Life was very full. I, at the time, had a 25 year old, a 23 year old, 20 year old and a 13 year old. So, really busy, kids in college, oldest daughter in law school, a junior higher, working and carrying on, life was great, very healthy. I've never had any health concerns. I've had the flu a couple of times. Life was just moving.

Tell us about the circumstances that led to your mammogram in 2023.

In July of 2023, I went in for a routine physical that I started going to when I was 50. My husband was like, “You have got to go to the doctor, besides the female doctor.” I think in 2020 I started going, or 2021, every July. He had started me on, you need to have your colonoscopy, you haven't had your mammogram in a bit — I had had mammograms my entire life, every year, especially during birthing years, and I did my gynecological exam that year. I went back in 2022, he had also scheduled me a mammogram and a colonoscopy. I made the colonoscopy, I canceled the mammogram because something came up, and I'd had them a million times, and you know, everything was fine.

And so in 2023 he said, “Mary, you have not done your mammogram, so you need to go.” And I said, “Yes, I have to knock this out.” So scheduled it for August of 2023 and zoomed in after dropping my son off at Texas A&M for his freshman year on a Thursday, went up to Arkansas to visit my daughter. I had that appointment on Monday afternoon, almost canceled again, but something inside was like, “Mary, you have neglected this.” It was kind of a COVID neglect, I think, too. You know, I’m past having kids, everything is fine, but I was like, “No, I need to go.” So literally, I drove in from Fayetteville into town, straight to my appointment. Did the appointment, no problem.

How did you process the uncertainty between the screening and the confirmation of your diagnosis?

The next day, my general practitioner, my doctor, called and said, “Hey, they want to you to come back and just take a look.” I've had this happen before. I have dense breasts, so I was like, “No problem.” I told my husband, “Do not go with me. It's fine.”

I went back to do the ultrasound, and I could start telling in the ultrasound just how much time she was taking, how long it was taking, that something wasn't right. But again, I'm like, “It's fine.” So, she left after she finished, and it was a while before she came back. And she came back in and said, “Your doctor wants to see you.” He was in the same building as the ultrasound.

I started to walk to his office, and I tell people that I knew in that moment I had breast cancer. I mean, it's just one of those animated feelings of walking down the hallway like, “I don't know what this is, but I think it is breast cancer.”

My family physician is a family friend, and so I found myself comforting him. He's like, “Mary, I think it's going to be fine. They found four spots, and so I'm going to send you in the morning to a surgeon. I'm sure it's going to be fine.”

How did you navigate the medical terminology and results once you suspected a diagnosis?

I did as everyone does, went to Dr. Google that night and Googled all of my ultrasound results and realized that, because of the terms that were in there, and because of the number that they found, that this was probably pretty serious.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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