When Sommer Leigh Asay’s OB/GYN came across a round lump in Aay’s breast during a routine check-up, she wasn’t concerned.
“She said, ‘There’s a little lump here, but it feels round and cystic,'” remembers 33-year-old Asay, a speech language pathologist from Salisbury, Maryland.
Because of her age (32 at the time), Asay’s doctor recommended that she simply check the lump again in six months. Finding herself without health insurance while starting up her own practice six months later, Asay went to the health department for the check-up. There, a nurse located the lump but hesitated to recommend a mammogram when she heard that Asay’s OB/GYN had not ordered one.
Unfortunately, waiting turned out to be the wrong decision. A few months later, the lump had grown to the point where the skin was starting to “buckle” around it and Asay developed symptoms like fatigue and night sweats. Her boyfriend, Ben Adams, 34, insisted that she go get the lump checked out again.
This time, Asay went to her primary care provider. “She said, ‘Your doctor told you this was a cyst? I need you to go get a mammogram today,’” Asay remembers.
After an excruciating two-week wait and a whirlwind of tests, blood work, and procedures, Asay walked into her doctor’s office for the results.
“I went by myself,” Asay remembers. “I didn’t think it was going to be anything. I walked into the appointment thinking it would be a quick in and out, and when I saw the doctor waiting for me by the door, I was thinking ‘Hmmm, this is interesting. Why is he looking at me like this?’ He was very solemn. I was in shock … I didn’t even cry in the appointment.”
Instead, Asay left and immediately called her mother from the car. And when Eunice Morgan, 65, picked up the phone, Asay received another huge shock: her mother had received her own cancer diagnosis that day. Within two hours of each other, both mother and daughter had received the same diagnosis of infiltrative ductal breast cancer, Morgan’s a Stage 1, and Asay’s, Stage 2.
Neither woman had wanted to worry the other, but with everything finally out in the open, they began their journey together. Morgan opted for a lumpectomy, followed by radiation. Asay decided to go through chemotherapy to shrink her tumor and undergo a double mastectomy with reconstructive surgery later this winter.
“I’ll get my headlights at the end of the tunnel,” she laughs.
That sense of humor and grace has helped Asay through her treatment, which has fortunately been “very successful,” she says. Both she and her mother are showing no signs of cancer after their initial treatments and are doing well. Asay is doing so well, in fact, that she decided to throw a holiday party for her speech therapy families as a way to show her appreciation for the support they have shown. And because so many of her clients have special needs, Asay contacted Stephanie Smith of Lenses for Love, a photographer who donates photo shoots to children with special needs, to see if she may interested in taking pictures at her party.
Not only was Smith interested in photographing the event, but after hearing more about Asay’s story, including the fact that she had recently shaved her head after her hair fell out while dancing at a music festival, Smith was moved to offer Asay one more surprise — and this time it was a good one.
“I asked if she would be interested in me doing a shoot just for her,” Smith says. “It brought back a whirl of emotions because my grandmother is a breast cancer survivor and my sister is a two-time Hodgkins Lymphoma survivor, so I remember all of those crazy emotions and feelings.”
Although Asay says she was initially “very reluctant” to accept Smith’s offer, she did. So Smith worked with Mary’s Designer Bridal Boutique to find a gown, and professional make-up artist Francisca Rogel, who donated her time and services as well. “We just made some magic,” Smith says.
“I’m not good at accepting things,” Asay admits. “I was reluctant to do it, but as soon as I walked in, I was so comfortable with [Stephanie], she’s so laid back and sweet. She made me feel great, she just did. I’ve never walked out in public without a wig or a head wrap, but I forgot. I forgot I didn’t have a head wrap on until I saw people looking at me in the park in awe. I felt like a princess.”
Over the phone, Asay choked up when she described a highlight from the day: a little a girl walking in the park with her __parents spotted her and ran up to her to ask if she could take a picture with the “real-life” princess.” She said, ‘Look mommy, it’s a princess!’ She didn’t even notice I didn’t have hair.”
And although Asay’s story of strength may bring you to tears, she is determined that no one should feel pity for her.
“I’m very happy,” she says. “I’m so extremely happy that Ben has stood by my side (the couple had only begun dating six weeks before her diagnosis). Because of the chemo destroying my eggs, I’m going through my menopause at 33 years old — I’m going through mood swings and hot flashes and crazy night sweats, not to mention other things.”
But despite the challenges, Asay believes she is lucky.
“I’m so blessed to have such a strong support system, such great friends who don’t look at me like some medical patient,” she explains. “I still go out to my friends and we have great days … There is so much I am so blessed with, to be going through this and be able to function through this. Truly the lesson in this is humility and learning to accept support, because it’s just been flooding in. I just feel very grateful and so blessed for the experience, I will probably look at those pictures every day until I’m through this.”
And just like her other donated photo shoot, Smith only asked Asay for one thing in return: a photo with her subject. No Photoshop needed for these two beautiful souls.
