Tulsa Breast Cancer Survivor Talks About Her Journey Back

Once upon a time the diagnosis of breast cancer was like a death sentence. And for the women who did survive, they rarely talked about it.

That was case for June Jordan. June was 40 years old when she went in for a biopsy and came out of surgery with a radical mastectomy.

Sixty-eight years ago June Jordan married the man of her dreams. They raised four children and now enjoy 10 grandchildren and 10 great granddaughters. But life has had its ups and downs including a diagnosis of breast cancer 46 years ago.

"At that time all they did was radicals, you didn't have the choice whether you wanted a radical or partial or whatever, you just had the whole thing," said June Jordan. "It is a brutal surgery, it really is. I'm all hollow through here and he took all the lymph nodes and scraped that. And then when I went home, I had no chemo or no radiation because they didn't do that at the time."

She spent 10 days in the hospital, two weeks before she saw the scars.

"We didn't really ever talk about it. A lot of people asked me how I felt and that's about how far it went," said June Jordan.

And when it came to regaining her femininity, there was nothing and she says it was kind of depressing.

"I see all these nice things and I can't have them. Of course now they have nice bathing suits and things like that is better, they didn't have anything, they didn't even have prosthesis then. I used to wear pantyhose rolled up because they didn't even have prosthesis," said June Jordan.

Fast forward to today and things are very different.

So, when June's daughter, Kim Baird was diagnosed, her journey was very different and treatment much more specific.

"There were lots of issues that I had to go through that she never did. And I said mom you never had to do this, you didn't have to do that. I said it seemed like in that first month, I was going to doctors all the time, before I actually had the surgery scheduled," said Kim Baird.

Now both mother and daughter are cancer free and celebrate their survivorship each fall during the Komen Race for the Cure.

At 46 years, June is the longest living survivor at the race, she knows she's come a long way but says she's hopeful one day, there will finally be a cure.

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is coming up September 28 in downtown Tulsa at ONEOK Field.

Folks are already signing up to be a part of this event and help raise money in the fight against breast cancer.

There's the serious 5K run, a 5K walk and a one mile walk or run. And for survivors like June Jordan, there's a special celebration, the survivor parade.

You can start your own team or you can join mine. Join LeAnne's team.