WSMV employee visits local cancer facility that helped her through breast cancer battle
DuBois has been cancer free for over two years and says she is thankful and blessed for the opportunity and care she received at the Hope Lodge.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - This weekend, the American Cancer Society is hosting its annual Discovery Ball to raise money for the Hope Lodge, where cancer patients can stay free of charge as they battle this disease.
One of our WSMV4 colleagues, who once worked for the American Cancer Society, knows first-hand how much of a blessing the Hope Lodge can be.
Nancy Hauskins DuBois is a producer at WSMV. She is also a survivor of breast cancer not only once but twice.
“I took the radical route and went ahead in 2015 and had a double mastectomy.” she said. “In 2022, I felt something unusual under my arm pit and I said ‘This is strange.’ But sure enough, I had stage two cancer.”
The pictures from her cancer battles are bittersweet. Some bring laughter, like the one she showed sharing bald heads with a bald famous comedian, while other images are memories from a time she would rather forget.
“I mean I look at the one with me and Howie Mandel and I giggle.” DuBois said. While other images are memories from a time she would rather forget. “People can tell you about their hair falling out but until you are grabbing fists full of it and dropping it in the trash, it’s just heartbreaking.”
At the time, she was living in Indiana with her teenaged son. He was her first hope, the person she used as inspiration to fight. However, her doctors were five hours away in Nashville. That’s when she remembered her second hope, the Hope Lodge.
“I had known about the Hope Lodge from when I worked at the American Cancer Society for a short period of time. And I just looked into it because I knew that’s what they are there for. That’s what they do.” said DuBois.
It was inside doors of the Hope Lodge that DuBois would spend six weeks of cancer treatments. WSMV took her back to the place she says still feels like home.
She expressed her feelings as she stopped in front of the room she once stayed in.
“It’s bittersweet. It was such a comforting place to turn to when I was under treatment.” She remembered. Another comforting place was the room next door, room 311.
“When I lost both parents to cancer. I took the money they had left me and sponsored room 311. And when I came here years later, they put me in the room next door 310 instead of 311. And I would stop by on my way to treatment and I would kiss the plaque to help me get through this today Mom and Dad.” DuBois told us.
There are two aspects about the Hope Lodge that DuBois never had a chance to do.
One, was to write words of encouragement on the walls for those who are currently battling cancer to see, and the other was to ring the Bell of Hope, signifying that her cancer treatments were over.
DuBois was now able to do both while those battling cancer cheered her on.
DuBois has been cancer-free for over two years and says she is thankful and blessed for the opportunity and care she received at the Hope Lodge. A place that made such an impact on her life.
“It’s an amazing place, and I can’t think of a better surrounding to be in when you are going through so much,” she said.
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