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October 2, 2009

Practicing what she preached a blessing for Tricia Daugherty

By Dave Stafford, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer The Herald Bulletin Fri Oct 02, 2009, 11:59 AM EDT

ANDERSON — Tricia Daugherty practiced what she preached. Turned out to be a blessing.

“I would stand on the podium every day and preach to women to get their mammograms, and even men to do self-exams,” said Daugherty, who was an American Cancer Society volunteer for years before her breast cancer diagnosis.

Her diagnosis came when it was detected early. There had been no lump, and no warning that anything was wrong.

“I was one of the very fortunate ones. My cancer was found very early in a regular, routine annual mammogram,” she said.

She was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ — a form of breast cancer in which the cancer cells are contained to the milk ducts.

“I had a complete mastectomy,” Daugherty said. “I did not have to take chemo or radiation.”

She took Tamoxifen for five years, and stopped taking that medicine a year ago.

“I’ve been cancer-free for six years,” she said.

She’s carrying on her work as a volunteer and she also has become a medical imaging assistant at Community Hospital.

Daugherty and her husband, Dan, own Dan’s Music on Nichol Avenue in Edgewood, and they’ve been in the business for 15 years.

The job at Community provided a way to access affordable health care, she said. It also let her put some of her personal experience to work.

“I’m familiar with women coming in for mammograms and that sort of thing, and how anxious they can be,” she said.

Daugherty said having good support groups — family and friends as well as formal groups — and a positive frame of mind are vital for anyone facing a breast-cancer diagnosis.

“Attitude and sense of humor are the main things, and surrounding yourself with people with good sense of humor and attitude, too,” she said.

“You never think it’s going to happen to you,” she said. “I obviously wasn’t in control of getting breast cancer, but there was a higher power and I wasn’t going to fight that.”

Daugherty is active in the Hands and Hearts support group at St. John’s Medical Center, which meets the first Tuesday of each month.

“It’s been great,” she said. Her participation with those who are in treatment for breast cancer “shows them that there is hope that you can get through this.”

Contact Dave Stafford: 648-4250, dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com

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