Survivor Friday: Judy Benson

Counting down to a big event, we are talking about making strides. We are teaming up with the American Cancer Society this year for these breast cancer walks that will be taking place all over central Florida. The one that we will be at, Fox 35, will be at the one on October 31st at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando. But there's also one coming up, not this weekend, but next weekend that we are going to be talking about with our survivor who is joining us for our Survivor Friday segment this morning. Leading up to Making Strides, we're meeting all kinds of women who have beaten and battled cancer. And today's guest is a melanoma and breast cancer survivor. This is Judy Benson. Hi, Judy. Hi. Thanks for coming. Absolutely. Love your pink, love your shirt. Yes, we wear pink in October. Yes, we do. And this is the shirt that they will be sending to anyone who is able to gather up a good amount of donations. I just got mine in the mail the other day. It's a survivor shirt. That's right. This is my survivor shirt. I love it. Talk to me, Judy, first. Take me through your story. when were you first diagnosed I was diagnosed with melanoma about probably 35 years ago that was a chance discovery a friend had a little something going on with a freckle and I said hey look at this one and nurse didn't like it and I had surgery probably seven days later I had melanoma Wow but we caught it very early the breast cancer I remember the phone call I think we all do you need extra images and you come in and everybody's really quiet and really meet your eye so you know something's wrong um and the extra images happen and then you go to the quiet room and the doctor comes in and says well i'm sorry to tell you you have breast cancer and it's bad and you go out in the parking lot and you have a good cry and i started making phone calls because i've worked in the hospital industry about 40 years or so so i made my phone calls i made my own appointment for my biopsy and the surgeon and and my tumor ended up being weird so it required and had legs so I had a couple of surgeries and some chemo had bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction and it's been 11 years now I just finished my oral chemo about a month ago It's the little things and then in my numbers I had something called a Signatera which is they take a little blood work and they look and see if the likelihood of your cancer is it coming back on a molecular level and my first one having having it done is clear so I get to go I graduated to once a year at the doctor's office now so this is all little things but the walks when And whenever I'm able, I walk. This is my medal from 2016. I was diagnosed and had surgery in 2015, so my family wouldn't let me go. So this is the year after, and I walked. And as a survivor, the walk, they have a nice breakfast for us and a nice little goodie bag. And then we get to go up on stage, and they say our name and how long we've been clean. and we all get a little medal um so it's it's it's really nice and you know you go and you're promoting breast cancer awareness in women get your mammogram done most of the time it's free if you have insurance that's how i found mine um and your support and your sisters right the ones that can't be there the ones that have passed away um the ones that are battling and fighting like my friend Dana, Dana you can do it, cancer does not define you um so that's who i that's who i'm there for i've lost a lot of friends to breast cancer yes yeah and i lost my dad to cancer so uh when i walk i walk with purpose god bless you um your your story i love that your doctor said it's bad and 11 years later here you are and sitting and sharing your story with us and you are a survivor and you are an inspiration okay judy tell everybody how they can join you for the walk in Volusia County october 24th right yes okay what do they need to do just go to the website for the walk and just plug in where you're going to walk and if you're a survivor or a thriver or you just want to donate or if you just want to come down for the festivities and you're not a big walker so you can make your own team you can join a team or you can just sign up as a person and um and just walk with the rest of us this year we're going over the bridge the bridge is back oh nice oh and your walk is the 31st yes okay so you're so the Volusia County walk is the 31st the Brevard County walk is the one that is not this weekend but the next week on october 24th so orlando and Volusia Flagler will walk on halloween judy i can't wait to see you walk across that bridge congratulations you are fabulous thank you you're welcome thank you We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.