CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Galatians 6:10 says "Therefore as we have opportunity let us do good to all..." This is one of Nancy Lechner's favorite verses. For her, faith and family are bedrocks.
Along with her firefighting husband, Dana, she has a 17-year-old senior at Flour Bluff High School and two other kids who are grown. It's nearly an empty nest.
But in January 2016, her faith was tested and the family was forced to pull together following a breast cancer diagnosis.
"When I was recovering and all he (Dana) was there. He was with me. He was able to take all that time off," said Lechner. Her husband added "we're (CCFD) on a schedule where we're 24 on, 48 off. The two days off gave me plenty of time."
Lechner wants everyone to know she never missed a mammogram, "So, every year I'd go. It was like clockwork."
This medical representative for Pfizer of 24-years was in Victoria awaiting results on a biopsy after noticing a lump in her left breast. She told her doctor it was "okay" to call her on the road with the findings.
The phone rang.
"You know, you just get kind of numb. You hear the words that it's cancerous and...you just get a little numb," she said adding "it was stage 2. It was invasive lobular carcinoma." In other words rare and spreading.
Her doctor's plan was aggressive and quick, all taking place within three-months. First, a mastectomy of the left breast followed by a second surgery removing the right breast and then full reconstruction. Also, there was no family history of breast cancer and she was BRCA negative, which was good news.
"The fact that I have yearly mammograms and within a year I had four of them...it just goes to show you it's important to always check."
Lechner is dialed into the breast cancer community today. She is a member of First Friday, a non-profit providing free screening mammograms, and always reaching out to those diagnosed with a gift; a devotional book and hand held cross. "I was given those things by some friends and they were so comforting. Whenever I was at my appointments, my surgeries...it was so comforting to me. So now, I want to provide that comfort to others."
She finished with another one of her favorite readings: Psalm 139 13-14, "For you created me in my most being. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
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