PRESCOTT, Ariz. — When Wanda Dench became sick earlier this year, she had no clue about the news she was about to receive.
"In the beginning of the year I got sick with Bronchitis," she said. "And they scheduled me for a CT scan to make sure I didn't have pneumonia, which I didn't. But during that scan they saw a mass in my breast and they suggested I go get a mammogram."
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The now 67-year-old had always gotten routine mammograms. However, a couple years ago she stopped because she thought her chances of getting Breast Cancer were low. She had no family history of it, and all her mammograms thus far had come back negative. This time though, was different.
"It was confirmed I had stage I cancer in my breast," she said. "So it was a blessing in disguise of getting sick and find out this way."
The diagnosis was unexpected and overwhelming. Dench immediately took action with more testing and surgery. She's currently getting three-hour chemotherapy treatments every three weeks.
"They put a port here," she said. "There's a lump you see here, it's under the skin. It's where they put the chemotherapy."
Dench became well-known after a mistaken text she sent in 2016 went viral. She thought she was inviting her grandson to Thanksgiving, but accidentally sent the invite to Jamal Hinton, a complete stranger. Hinton though, accepted and the two have celebrated every Thanksgiving since. It also includes during the pandemic, when Dench lost her husband to complications from COVID-19.
"A lot of times when I wake up and I'm hurting or sick or nauseous I talk to him and say, 'Hey honey, can you help me through this and just give me some hope and some courage to get me through this?'" she said. "And it feels very quickly he answers."
Dench is optimistic about her prognosis, but as she reflects on her journey thus far, she wants others to know one thing.
"To live their best life," she said. "The way they want to live it. Some people want time, I assume most of us want time but we don't have that guarantee to us."
And moving forward that's what she intends to do, to live in the moment and never take time for granted.
Dench says her chemotherapy treatments will finish at the end of this month, and she'll then start radiation. She also says the annual Thanksgiving celebration this year with Hinton is a go.
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