ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. — Alamance County native Sandy Ellington Graves stays busy throughout the week. She serves as the School Board Chair for Alamance-Burlington School System, she's a real estate broker, and she's a mom of three.
"Two are grown and married, and I've got a senior at Southern High School," she said.
Graves enjoys pouring into the community she treasures.
But at no point did she think that her community would have to pour so heavily into her.
"These are some of the schools showing their support," Graves said while looking through pictures.
She found a photo of a big truck on the highway with a message of support.
"This is the truck I was telling you about - that 'We're pulling for you' and this was immediately right after the surgery," she said.
In June of 2023, Graves was diagnosed with stage 1A breast cancer.
"I never expected the word cancer to be in my future," she said. "They were aggressive in scheduling the surgery. The surgery went well. Pain management was great, and I went back for my first post-op and I found out two of my lymph nodes were positive."
Year after year, she'd always get her annual mammogram — until 2017.
"I think life got in the way. We got busy. We had a pandemic, and there is always something else that needed priority," Graves said.
Six years and no mammograms — until a health scare recently landed her in her primary physician's office.
"That first meeting was — he noted, 'Hey, you don't have any mammograms in your chart,'" she recalled.
Amanda Scarlett serves as a supervisor at Cone Health's Norville Breast Center.
"As women, we are the home managers and we're always making sure that everyone else is getting taken care of in the family, so we tend to put our health on the back burner," Scarlett said.
On average, the center sees 85-100 patients a day for screening.
Scarlett said mammograms are typically for women starting at the age of 40.
"We want you to come in every year because the goal here is to detect breast cancer at its earliest, most treatable stage, so mammogram is still the best screening tool," she said.
That's the message Graves wants to make sure she gets out - in hopes that women won't put off their annual mammograms like she did.
"Nothing should take more priority than your mammograms," Graves said.
Graves works with several organizations like Little Pink Houses of Hope and the Pink Ribbon Fund to help spread that message.
"There's a lot of people just from the past few weeks that have shared their story. 'I'm gonna get a mammogram because of you,'" she said.
It's testimonies like that that keep Graves going, as well as learning to lean on her family, her community, and her faith.
"I think when God gives you things, you figure out ways to find that silver lining, ways to find that purpose, and ways to bring something good out of it," she said.
Graves knows she has a journey ahead of her, but she's thankful she's not alone.
