Telling It Like It Is: Breast Cancer Survivor Wants Women to Hear Her Story

In addition to fighting cancer, Tralee searched to find meaning in her journey.

Tralee Hale did not set out to be a community advocate in the fight against breast cancer. She was happy working as a flight attendant and raising Kelee Ringo, a standout football player in high school who was being recruited by multiple college teams, including the University of Georgia Bulldogs.

But then she was diagnosed with breast cancer and every aspect of her life changed.

Now, she is working with St. Mary’s and breast surgery specialist Dr. Kathleen Jeffery to bring her story to women who need to hear it. Her core message:

• 1-in-8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.
• The earlier cancer is found, the better.
• No matter who you are, no matter how good you feel, you are not immune.

“I just knew it could not happen to me,” she says. “I believe a lot of people have that state of mind.”

The nightmare starts

Tralee takes a deep breath. The story of her journey is not easy to tell. But telling it – as often as she can, to as many people as she can – has become her mission.

“My goal is to make people laugh and make people cry, but at the end, they go home and tell their family members about the ‘Tralee Show’ and that they learn something about cancer. I plan on sending women home – and men, too – to make the women in their family go and get imaging.”

Her story begins in 2019 while Kelee was in high school in Phoenix, Arizona. Tralee noticed a lump in her left breast. Being young and healthy, she wrote it off as a clogged duct, even when, months later, she noticed it had grown larger.

Then came 2020. She and Kelee flew to Athens many times as the UGA football program worked to recruit him. COVID struck. She was laid off but becoming a stay-at-home mom created opportunities for bonding. “We had lots of laughs and created some good memories during that time,” she says.

And then, on June 3, Kelee reported to UGA and she became an empty-nester. She was turning 40, so she decided it was time for some self-care. Her doctor scheduled her for a mammogram. The result was alarming. A biopsy a few days later confirmed what she had not thought possible: she had stage 2B triple-negative ductal carcinoma.

It was serious. It was aggressive. She would have to have chemotherapy, starting immediately. When she called her mother with the news, her mother packed up and moved to Phoenix from Washington State.

Treatment begins

Tralee’s treatment started immediately with the implantation of a “port” that would allow her to receive medications and blood tests without having a separate needle stick each time. Then the chemo started.

An important trait of cancer cells is that they grow fast. Chemo drugs work by attacking fast-growing cells. But certain other cells in the body also grow fast, so chemo drugs affect them, too. Tralee’s hair fell out. Her nails fell out. The enamel of her teeth became brittle. Every joint hurt, and she battled constipation, pain, nausea, weight loss, loss of taste, urinary tract infections and incontinence.

“Once, a friend brought me a steak and lobster dinner, and I was so excited about it. But it tasted like cardboard. I couldn’t eat it,” she says.

In August, as Tralee struggled against illness and the isolation caused by her vulnerability to COVID, Kelee hit a wall in his training at UGA. He needed shoulder surgery if he was to continue his football career. Tralee’s mother had already found a place in Athens where she and Tralee could come for home games, so Tralee decided it was time to move to Athens to be with him. The trip from Phoenix was grueling, but with her mother’s support, she made it.

She finished her chemo in December of 2020. This was also when she had to decide what kind of surgical treatment to get. Friends and family urged her to get a lumpectomy, which would remove the tumor but leave most of her breast intact. However, Tralee was worried about the risk of a recurrence. She felt her best option was to have both breasts removed, a bilateral mastectomy.

It turned out her decision was right: pre-cancerous cells were found in her other breast and lymph nodes. Her cancer had metastasized, meaning cancer cells had spread beyond the original tumor. In February of 2021, she had to resume chemo to destroy any cancer cells that might have taken hold in other parts of her body.

Complications and more complications

After her mastectomy, her surgeon inserted a device called an expander that would create a pouch under her skin for future breast implants. But the wound did not heal properly and a hole opened in her skin. Cosmetic surgeons and general surgeons each said she needed to start with the other. Finally, Athens plastic surgeon Dr. Stephen Lober agreed to treat her. He worked with her oncologist to halt chemotherapy so that her wound could heal. But Tralee was responsible for cleaning and packing the wound until it recovered enough that Dr. Lober could surgically return her to a safe starting point for reconstruction. That might sound straightforward, but it made most of 2021 a traumatic and painful year for Tralee.

Worse, tissue biopsies showed small traces of cancer still lingered in her blood. She had to go back on chemo. During this time, problems with focus, memory and emotional control that had developed early in chemotherapy worsened. Issues with what she calls “chemo brain” continue to this day, though medication has helped.

Finally, she was on the right track. In February 2022, another round of testing revealed no cancer markers: she was cancer-free. Tralee was able to resume progress on reconstructive surgery, a process that required a total of five surgeries due to the complications she experienced.

Finding a new sense of self