- November 27, 2024
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With the Pink Army 5K Run being held Oct. 27, breast cancer survivor Joy Mottel urges early-detection practices.
When Joy Mottel, 56, was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2008, she was all business.
Having received annual mammograms since she was 35, her calcifications were detected early, and her prognosis was positive — doctors said she had a 90% to 95% cure rate.
Until that point, she was healthy. She exercised regularly, didn’t smoke or drink and was a long-distance cyclist. She had no lumps, no family history, no indications of any kind.
And after her diagnosis, she had no self-pity.
Within six months, Mottel had a lumpectomy, then a bilateral mastectomy, after her first surgery revealed she had multifocal disease. Immediately following, she had reconstructive surgery.
“My only option was to have a mastectomy,” she said, plainly. “I never, ever said, ‘Why me?’ … It doesn’t matter why I got it or what happened … You don’t wait around. There’s no reason to wait around.”
She cites friends who survived breast cancer. She calls them “the ones who paved the road before me.” She said, “If they can do it, I can do it.”
Before her breast reconstruction was fully healed, Mottel, a marketing major, spoke at her first awareness seminar. It was her first public appearance. Since then, she has become a face to the local fight against breast cancer.
Featured in a 2009 Florida Hospital Flagler ad, she also volunteers with the American Cancer Society, the Pink Army and at the hospital’s bilingual Judith C. Macko Cancer Library, a free resource center which has seen more than 2,800 visitors since it opened two years ago. She speaks with several awareness and support groups.
She has even given her surgeons permission to give her personal phone number to breast cancer patients, who comprise the “community” united by the illness. She says she receives about one call per week from complete strangers, women she invites over to speak with her or have a session of “show and tell,” where she’ll show women firsthand what to expect from surgery.
“You just need to be vigilant, and there’s more than one way” she said, citing self-exams and checkups. “Don’t wait till you get a lump.”
Launched last year, the Pink Army recruited more than 6,000 “soldiers” throughout Volusia and Flagler counties. This year, it aims to increase that number, by spreading to Central Florida.
Sponsored by Palm Coast and Florida Hospital Flagler, the Pink Army 5K Run begins 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27.
“I don’t consider it a death sentence,” Mottel says of her disease. “If you’re going to get (a cancer), this is the one to get.”
That doesn’t mean it isn’t deadly, but, she says, shrugging, “I can die from anything.” Pedaling her bike down A1A is probably more dangerous than her puny cancer was, she jokes.
Visit www.JoinThePinkArmy.com.
Runners X-ing
Due to race traffic, Central Avenue, eastbound from the Publix Shopping Center to Town Center Blvd., will be closed 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27. One lane of southbound traffic on Town Center Boulevard and Hospital Drive will also be closed.
