Breast Cancer Survivors 2016

​Maria del Carmen Compean
For nearly a year, Ma del Carmen Compean expected her breasts to swell and become painful. She even ran a fever. She wrongly assumed the problems were caused by hormonal changes, so she took over-the-counter medications and went about her life.

Maria Falcon
Maria Falcon doesn’t want to be a poster woman for a breast cancer patient’s recovery. Staff at Harris Health System’s Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital called her a “miracle” for her positive attitude and high tolerance for treatments.

Sheila Fant
Sheila Fant thought she was done with breast cancer a long time ago. She had successfully battled and won. However, last year, a decade after her last bout, she was diagnosed again—this time an aggressive cancer at stage III.

Barbara Garcia
Taking care of people is part of Barbara Garcia’s make-up. A caregiver by profession in a nursing home, she was so busy taking care of others, she sometimes overlooked her own health.

Rosa Huddleston
Rosa Huddleston is a young looking 68-year-old and a naturally positive person. Such was her disposition despite being diagnosed with breast cancer.

Lakeisha Jermany
For 34-year-old Lakeisha Jermany, finding out she had cancer made her mortality top of mind. She had already experienced great loss in her family—the death of her brother and both parents, only a year apart.

Rosa Lora Linares
Rosa Lora Linares experienced breast pain with each menstrual cycle. When her left breast became enlarged, she visited her family doctor.

​Olga Cleto Murillo
Olga Cleto Murillo had no history of cancer in her family, so when she began feeling pain in her left arm and fingers, and found a lump in her armpit, the last thing she expected to hear was cancer.

Marissa Ortega
Marissa Ortega has been in treatment for HIV at Harris Health System’s Thomas Street Health Center since 2009, so when she felt a lump in her breast she naturally approached her physician at the HIV/AIDS specialty facility.

Ilda Sanchez
Ilda Sanchez was told she had stage III breast cancer and had resolved to not seek treatment. She was referred to Harris Health System’s Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital where staff and her family convinced her to battle the disease.

Madonna Spring
Madonna Spring has an important job of providing security to patients, visitors and staff at Harris Health System’s Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital. As a security officer and now, a breast cancer survivor, she is usually the first person patients see when they go in for outpatient surgery procedures.

Gwendolyn Stuart
Gwendolyn Stewart has battled cancer for more than a decade. Her first bout with the disease was for herself, but the latest fight is for her young live-in granddaughter.

Lucille Taylor
Lucille Taylor went to an emergency clinic last November when her right breast became swollen and painful.  It was eventually diagnosed as stage IV breast cancer.

Mabel Ubanaja
Mabel Ugbanaja lost her husband to cancer and survived aggressive breast cancer that metastasized to her brain, bones and liver.

Egrezelda Vargas
Egrezelda Vargas discovered she had late stage breast cancer after her leg broke while she was washing dishes. X-rays revealed a suspicious area.