For Jackinah Denise, having breast cancer in her lifetime wasn’t a matter of if but when.
“I have a very strong family history,” said Denise, 49, who calls herself the “Strong Willed Survivor” and was only 37 when she was diagnosed in 2014.
On her father’s side of the family, many women including her grandmother, aunts and cousins had the disease. Her mother had cancer when Denise was young, and Denise became the caregiver for her brothers.
Other types of cancer have taken also shown up in her family tree. Knowing her family history and taking charge of her health have kept Denise alive. Sometimes, that family history has been taboo in families, but she urges others especially Black women to follow her example.
When it comes to breast cancer outcomes, there’s been a racial disparity for years.
“Black women younger than age 50 had a death rate that was twice as high as White women that age. Plus, Black women are more likely than White women to die of breast cancer at any age,” according to the American Cancer Society. Go here for more information. “The largest disparities in 5-year relative survival are for regional and distant stage breast cancer. Only 78% of Black women are living at least 5 years after their diagnosis of regional stage breast cancer compared to 88% of White women.”
Denise became proactive with her health early on, having her first mammogram at only 19.
She joined the Navy and while stationed in Japan, she knew something wasn’t right, but military doctors and civilian doctors in Japan didn’t bring a clear diagnosis. She returned to the states in August 2014 and was determined to get answers.
Those answers came on Oct. 27, 2014. She was getting her youngest son, who was 12 at the time, ready for school when the call that her biopsy from 10 days earlier showed breast cancer.
She remembers trying to hold everything together to get him to school and then the news hitting her. She cried out to God, then called her mother and her father.
On Dec. 1, 2014, she had a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction surgery. After the surgery, something didn’t feel right. The reconstruction felt hard and painful. She talked to someone in one of her breast cancer support groups who told her her instinct was right. She shouldn’t feel that way.
She would face several surgeries to correct the reconstruction including the replacement of the implants.
While she was dealing with that, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2015.
Her eldest son, who is now 31, put off his dreams of playing college football to be his mother’s caregiver.
The back-to-back cancer diagnoses weren’t Denise’s first health problems.
In 2007, she’d been in a severe collision with an 18-wheeler. That accident caused a variety of physical problems including almost losing a leg to amputation. And in 2009, because of endometriosis, she had a hysterectomy, but doctors left her ovaries. In 2016, she had them removed.
Other issues arose. She developed a variety of allergies. On her 42nd birthday, she was hospitalized for a blood disorder.
When COVID came, she completely isolated herself because contracting it could’ve meant death for Denise with her weakened immune system. Her son lived on one side of the home while she isolated on the other side.
The Navy brought her to Fort Gordon after COVID, and Denise met her “shero” the late Dr. Karen Yeh, who determined that Denise’s breast implants were causing some of her illnesses.
Denise knew they had to come out, but with that surgery, other thoughts crept in.
“Society says you’re not a woman without breasts,” she said.
Fighting a battle in the mind of self-image is also one she’s faced. Her body bears the scars of those many surgeries, but Denise is determined to be an inspiration for others.
In 2022, she retired from the Navy and in 2023, she faced a new health challenge. She had two heart attacks in April 2023. Her father also had heart problems, and he wasn’t doing well in May 2023.
Her doctor told her not to travel, but she wanted to say “goodbye” to her father in Pennsylvania. She couldn’t fly or drive, so she took a train. On June 1, she went to see him. Her son went into the house first and discovered her father had passed away of a heart attack.
On June 9, Denise had another heart attack, and of all the doctors on call, the cardiologist who treated her was her father’s cardiologist.
“He said ‘I was not able to save your father, but I’m going to do my damnedest to save his daughter,’” she said.
Denise continues to fight health issues and many times has wondered why they’ve come. She’s cried and wrestled with God in prayer telling him she didn’t “get” why she’d go through so many health issues. Her sons have taken what they’ve seen their mother go through to help others.
One is a critical care nurse in North Carolina and the other trains narcotics and bomb dogs, but each year, he trains a support dog and donates it to a cancer survivor.
“I get it (now). I understand,” she said. “Sometimes what go through isn’t just to build us, but to shape others through us.”
She was an ambassador the 17th Tee Fore Tatas fundraiser and second annual Boobie Bash earlier this month, but she was hospitalized before the events finished. The two events have raised more than $407,000 for cancer research at the Georgia Cancer Center.
“As I sit here in the hospital, where I’ve been for days, the enemy is whispering reminders of everything I’ve been through and everything I’m still facing. BUT GOD is reminding me of all He has brought me through,” she wrote in a Oct. 17 email.
“I am grateful for the wonderful nurses, IV team members, and care partners in the emergency department, who have walked through my doors in Room 614 and the ICU in Room 750 with compassion, patience, and kindness.”
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named best local writer by readers of Augusta Magazine in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here
