Breast cancer survivor turned model urges early detection

By Katie Leslie

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Renee Davis, a mother, model and spokeswoman, walked into the room where moments before a complete stranger had been given familiar news: She had breast cancer. The patient was terrified, and her doctor feared she might not return for treatment. The physician asked Davis to speak to the patient about life with cancer because Davis had been there, too.

"The first thing she said was: ‘But you're so beautiful,' as if to say ‘How could it happen to you?' " Davis recalled. "I told her it can happen to anyone who has breasts."

Davis, of Atlanta, was diagnosed in 1999 after finding a suspicious lump. The daughter of a breast cancer survivor and a woman with fibrocystic breasts, she performed monthly exams and  says she knew every curve.  Twice before she had biopsies of lumps. Both times, they were normal.

"But in my spirit, I felt that this one was different," she said.

Her doctor, after attempting to aspirate the lump, advised her to watch it six months for changes. In her gut, Davis knew she couldn't wait. The lump was biopsied the following week, revealing that the tumor was malignant and in its early stages, she said.

"I had just had a mammogram in August, and this happened in November," she said. "Had I waited and relied on the next yearly mammogram, it might've been too late."

The news compounded Davis' troubles. She had been laid off from her job with a telecommunications company, had no income and no health insurance. She calls that time her "tribulation period."

"My biggest concern was, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to pay for this?' Not about getting well," she said.

She credits the Avon Comprehensive Breast Center at Grady Memorial Hospital for helping defray costs of treatment through a state-funded assistance program.  She underwent a lumpectomy and two months of radiation, and she has been cancer-free since.

Modeling was a way for Davis to put her life back together, she said. Through her work with Elite Model Management in Atlanta, she booked a regular gig with Amoena, a manufacturer of products for women with breast cancer. Before long, she was Amoena's spokeswoman.

Davis, 57, embraces her position to educate women about the risk of breast cancer and early detection, as well as to advocate on behalf of the uninsured and underinsured. She's especially attuned to the challenges the poor face not just in affording health care, but in having access to quality food and other means of protecting themselves through a healthy lifestyle, she said.

"When you are homeless or don't have a roof over your head, it's difficult to go to the store and prepare a good meal," she said.

Davis focuses on working with women of color, as black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than their white counterparts despite having a lower incidence rate, according to the National Cancer Institute. Researchers point to a number of factors that may explain the disparity, including a lack of access to care, differences in the biology of the cancer or in screening rates, according to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Davis, who has two daughters and three "bonus" daughters from her second marriage, acknowledges her battle was minor compared with women like her own mother, who underwent a double mastectomy in the 1960s and whose breast cancer returned in later years. Davis shares both of their stories when traveling to events, including this weekend's Tour de Pink, a bike ride fund-raiser at Perimeter Mall headed by the Young Survivors Coalition.

"Sometimes God allows us to go through things so that we may share with others at the end," she said. "You can get through it. It is just one of life's obstacles."