‘I don’t have an expiration date’: Woman shares hopeful story about living with stage 4 breast cancer
"Enjoy everything! Why are you waiting to enjoy your life?"
NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and a woman in New Hanover County is sharing her story of survival.
In the summer of 2020, Mary Lucy Glockner was getting dressed and felt a lump on her breast within a year of having a clean mammogram. She made an appointment for a new mammogram and was told she needed a biopsy.
“The nurse, trying to be very nice, told me she understood how hard it was because her mom had had breast cancer twice,” Glockner said. “That shocked me a little bit, that we were already talking about cancer.”
The biopsy confirmed Glockner had stage two breast cancer at the age of 45 years old and needed chemotherapy. She took a leave of absence from her job as a fifth-grade teacher at Bolivia Elementary School in Brunswick County. On her last day, she says the staff showered her with gifts of things she could use while she was going through treatment. Though she had only known the children in her class for a short amount of time and exclusively virtually, Glockner was honest about why she was leaving and they were kind, supportive, and continued to check on her via email.
Around the time of her first chemo treatment, her oncologist at Novant Health Dr. Lindsey Prochaska noticed something on her L5 vertebra.
“She had gotten the results and told me that it had traveled to my spine,” Glockner said. “I was diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer and the average life span is five to ten years.”
Five months and 16 rounds of chemo shrunk the tumors on her breast and the L5 lesion is no longer detectable, but cancer had spread to several places on her body. It’s being controlled with medications and treatments.
“You can live with cancer. I never knew that before I was diagnosed. I thought it was a death sentence,” Glockner said. “I have learned that I don’t have an expiration date. I’ve learned that I have a lot more to do and a lot more living to do and because of medications, my life span is…who knows how long I’ll live?”
Not only living, but Glockner is living fully. She returned to teaching last school year and she’s spending time with loved ones. She’s even marking things off her bucket list, like performing in a musical this past summer.
Dr. Prochaska says Glockner is an inspiration.
“We’ve been able to see how someone with stage four disease can be so much of a story and a role model for other people who may be going through it and just to see that they can keep living their life,” Prochaska said. “It’s been really inspiring for me, watching her.”
In the moments between starring in shows and teaching in a classroom, Glockner is taking time to enjoy the smaller moments too.
“I used to save all my candles for, like, the perfect moment, which is so silly to me now I just say burn all the candles. Get flowers and burn the candles,” Glockner said. “Enjoy everything! Why are you waiting to enjoy your life?”
For more information on how to schedule a mammogram at Novant, visit here.
