Houston VA<\/a> Breast Cancer Survivor Celebration.<\/p>\n\u201cI remember the exact moment that Dr. Mahdieh Parizi at VA told me I had breast cancer,\u201d Mackie shared. \u201cShe said she couldn\u2019t do her job if she wasn\u2019t confident that there was hope, and she encouraged me to consider my diagnosis a bump in the road.\u00a0I decided right then and there that I wanted to live and I was going to do whatever it took to get to the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were there for me every step of the way.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Mackie, who missed a few mammograms during the pandemic, felt a lump in her breast and walked into her VA Women\u2019s Health Center because she felt something wasn\u2019t right.\u00a0\u201cI found a beautiful energy at VA. Once I was diagnosed, they got me going quickly in treatment and were there for me every step of the way,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n
Cervantes, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, said she has changed and grown since her diagnosis. \u201cOne important thing I have learned during this breast cancer journey is the power of yes.\u00a0I make a point to say yes when people ask me to go places and do things.\u00a0Eat the piece of cake.\u00a0Buy the pair of shoes.\u00a0Life is too short to waste it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Cervantes has also learned that being by yourself doesn\u2019t mean you are alone. \u201cI came to every appointment and surgery at VA by myself, but I found an amazing community of other Veterans and staff here and I have never felt alone. We can all be there for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Veterans\u00a0have incredible strength, perseverance and the will to move forward,\u201d said Dr. Mahdieh Irannejaparizi, breast cancer radiologist. \u201cTheir diagnosis, treatment, surgeries and the moments of uncertainty caused by breast cancer are all big battles. I am so proud to see them stand strong against breast cancer just like they did in their military service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Special thanks to all the Houston VA staff, community partners and organizations involved in celebrating the Houston VA\u2019s breast cancer survivors this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Meet the Veterans who shared their stories of healing and strength at a Houston VA Breast Cancer Survivor Celebration. Pink sisters: Army Veteran Kathy Mackie and Navy Veteran Luz Cervantes. Kathy Mackie is a survivor.\u00a0The Army Veteran, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, says she dug deep inside for the strength to battle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":318461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[393,5,1267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breast-cancer","category-health","category-visn-16"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318462,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318459\/revisions\/318462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/318461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![<\/a>Pink sisters: Army Veteran Kathy Mackie and Navy Veteran Luz Cervantes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nKathy Mackie is a survivor.\u00a0The Army Veteran, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, says she dug deep inside for the strength to battle through cancer treatment and has come out on the other side.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nAt 47, Luz Cervantes is also no stranger to a challenge. She is a Navy Veteran, a single mother and a survivor of breast cancer.\u00a0Mackie and Cervantes both shared their stories of healing and strength at a recent Houston VA<\/a> Breast Cancer Survivor Celebration.<\/p>\n\u201cI remember the exact moment that Dr. Mahdieh Parizi at VA told me I had breast cancer,\u201d Mackie shared. \u201cShe said she couldn\u2019t do her job if she wasn\u2019t confident that there was hope, and she encouraged me to consider my diagnosis a bump in the road.\u00a0I decided right then and there that I wanted to live and I was going to do whatever it took to get to the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThey were there for me every step of the way.\u201d<\/h2>\nMackie, who missed a few mammograms during the pandemic, felt a lump in her breast and walked into her VA Women\u2019s Health Center because she felt something wasn\u2019t right.\u00a0\u201cI found a beautiful energy at VA. Once I was diagnosed, they got me going quickly in treatment and were there for me every step of the way,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\nCervantes, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, said she has changed and grown since her diagnosis. \u201cOne important thing I have learned during this breast cancer journey is the power of yes.\u00a0I make a point to say yes when people ask me to go places and do things.\u00a0Eat the piece of cake.\u00a0Buy the pair of shoes.\u00a0Life is too short to waste it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nCervantes has also learned that being by yourself doesn\u2019t mean you are alone. \u201cI came to every appointment and surgery at VA by myself, but I found an amazing community of other Veterans and staff here and I have never felt alone. We can all be there for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cOur Veterans\u00a0have incredible strength, perseverance and the will to move forward,\u201d said Dr. Mahdieh Irannejaparizi, breast cancer radiologist. \u201cTheir diagnosis, treatment, surgeries and the moments of uncertainty caused by breast cancer are all big battles. I am so proud to see them stand strong against breast cancer just like they did in their military service.\u201d<\/p>\nSpecial thanks to all the Houston VA staff, community partners and organizations involved in celebrating the Houston VA\u2019s breast cancer survivors this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meet the Veterans who shared their stories of healing and strength at a Houston VA Breast Cancer Survivor Celebration. Pink sisters: Army Veteran Kathy Mackie and Navy Veteran Luz Cervantes. Kathy Mackie is a survivor.\u00a0The Army Veteran, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, says she dug deep inside for the strength to battle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":318461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[393,5,1267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breast-cancer","category-health","category-visn-16"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318462,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318459\/revisions\/318462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/318461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/news.va.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/10\/pink-sisters_r1.jpg\"){kind=link}