Mother finally has her day

Mike Sciacca

Whenever her daughter Nicole enters the living room of her Huntington

Harbour home, Janine McMillion breaks into intimate and animated talk

with the 8 month old.

A smile by the wispy blond-haired little girl causes Janine to

beam from ear to ear. Any word, any action by the toddler in fact, is

cause for pure delight.

It’s a joyous time for McMillion, 38, who, for the first time this

Sunday, will celebrate Mother’s Day in the main role.

But that’s jumping ahead in the story. McMillion is a breast

cancer survivor, eight years strong. She is a volunteer with two

facilities -- the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s Orange

County affiliate and the Breast Care Center in Orange -- both of

which offer hope and education to young women who, with early

detection, can live perfectly healthy, happy lives.

“For every mother out there, every woman out there, be diligent,”

says McMillion. “Do your self exams. Get regular checkups, and if you

see something, get it checked out.”

McMillion says more and more young women are getting diagnosed

with breast cancer. Seventy-five percent of all women with a positive

diagnosis have no family history, “including me,” she says.

“As Mother’s Day approaches, I want to get the message out there

to mothers, daughters and all women, to stay on top of their health

issues.”

According to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, 10,000

young women in the U.S. under the age of 40 will be told they have

breast cancer this year. Of that number, nearly 1,000 will be between

20 and 30 years old, like McMillion was when she was diagnosed in

1996.

At 29, her world then was exciting and promising. She was planning

her August wedding, about to begin her third year of law school, had

begun a summer clerkship, and had already been extended a job offer

in a law firm.

All that took place in a six-week period that culminated on Sept.

26 -- when a lump in her breast was diagnosed as cancerous.

“I thought, ‘I don’t have time for this!’” she recalls thinking

when she received the news. “It’s a numbing, shocking feeling, like

you’re going to wake up at some point. You just don’t fully process

news like that. It’s a denial phase, and I see that with other women

now who I talk with, who have also been diagnosed with breast cancer.

“I felt like someone put a brick wall in front of me and said if

you want your life back, you have to find a way to get through or

over it. I thought the only way I was good to anybody is if I were

alive. So, I started the fight. I’m also so, so blessed for having my

husband, Lee, who has been an incredible strength.”

McMillion underwent a lumpectomy, a bi-lateral mastectomy and

aggressive chemotherapy (she went “bald as a cue ball,” she says).

Because of cancer surgery, chemotherapy and an ongoing thyroid

problem, McMillion had been told it was highly unlikely she could

ever get pregnant.

That’s why she finds it difficult to describe the feelings she and

her husband had when they found out they were expecting, and again

when Nicole entered their lives last summer.

“Janine is really a great story for many reasons,” said Sally

Molnar, who, like McMillion, serves on the board of directors for the

Komen Foundation’s Orange County affiliate. “She was diagnosed with

breast cancer at a really young age when she was in the early stages

of marriage and at the beginning of her career. She not only had to

deal with the thought of trying to stay viable in her career while

dealing with breast cancer, but due to chemo and radiation, she was

told chances were very slim for her to have children.

“She’s a great inspiration to all women, especially young women,

out there. She is a survivor who went on to have a family and a

career. She’s proof that you can survive cancer and still become

pregnant.”

McMillion will take part in the Susan G. Komen Breast Health

Seminar & “Life in Bloom” Spring Luncheon on May 14 at the Wyndham

Hotel in Costa Mesa. The popular annual event brings together breast

cancer survivors, families, friends, educators and advocates.

McMillion and Nicole will be a mother-daughter modeling tandem at

the luncheon fashion show.

“I’m happy to help Komen get the word out to young women about

breast cancer,” says McMillion, who works to educate other young

women about the importance of early detection. “It doesn’t just

happen to our mothers and grandmothers. It happens to us, too.”

She stresses that with early detection, breast cancer can be

cured. “You can have the life you want,” she says. “I’m walking,

talking, living proof of that.”

McMillion, who opened her own law firm on April 18 and is also a full-time mom, picks up her daughter, and tosses her gently into the

air a few times, which draws a few coos from Nicole.

The brick wall she said she had to get through, or around, when

her diagnosis came eight years ago, is no longer there.

“What brick wall?” she says. “It’s completely crumbled down. I

found my way through it.

“I’m still a work in progress, though, and the biggest lesson I’ve

learned is that life is short. Plain and simple. It’s one day at a

time. I thank God for a great day, and hope for the next one. But

life today is better than I could have ever imagined it could be.

Baby and all.”

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at

(714) 966-4611 or by e-mail at [email protected].