Cancer couldn’t steal her joy or her sense of humor

October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Dr. Laura Morrow, Associate Professor of Management and Director of Collaborative Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives, is sharing her story to encourage and inform others.

“Not all breast cancer is the same,” Morrow said.

On December 20, 2018, Morrow was diagnosed with early-onset stage 3 inflammatory breast cancer, a rare and aggressive cancer that often progresses quickly and is frequently misdiagnosed. 

“What makes it different is that there’s no early detection. 90% of people with inflammatory breast cancer do not have a lump. Thankfully, I did. Once I felt a lump, it went from a golf ball to a grapefruit in eight days.”

Her treatment followed chemotherapy first, then a non-skin-sparing mastectomy.  “After chemotherapy, there’s radiation, and for a lot of people it’s three weeks. For me, I did two and a half weeks, but I did two a day, first thing in the morning, and then another, six hours later. I did 44 rounds of radiation in 22 days,” Morrow said. She also participated in a clinical trial for a drug typically used for stage four patients, which became approved for other high-risk breast cancer patients.

Morrow found a way to bring joy and connection into her cancer journey. She began dressing up in costumes for chemotherapy, a tradition inspired by a teacher friend during the holiday season. What started as a simple superhero cape for her first treatment quickly became a meaningful tradition.

“Somebody at her school always dressed up in costumes at school. And so I was like, I should be a superhero for the first one,” Morrow said.

Her creativity didn’t just lift her spirits; it helped other patients, like Tonya. “Her mom stopped me in the hall and was like, ‘I need to tell you, my daughter loves your costumes. We were so nervous because, as you can tell, she has special needs, and we were really nervous about explaining to her the process and how all this was going to work, and how we were going to get her to keep coming with us to do treatment. And when it started getting hard, you started showing up.’”

Teary-eyed, Morrow added, “I started bringing her an accessory to match me. At the end, she was kind of like a walking billboard of all of my costumes. We finished on the same day, which was not planned.”

Returning to work was another challenge. Morrow experienced “chemo brain,” making it hard to remember tasks or deadlines, something she still navigates on more tiring days.

To help others going through similar journeys, Morrow created resources, including her “cancer care cards,” designed to provide messages beyond the typical “get well soon.” She developed the cards with her nephew, who illustrated them. “The cards you get are like, ‘Get well soon,’ or whatever. Well, I had a nine-month journey, and some people have a journey that doesn’t end. There’s no ‘get well soon.’ So I was like, I need a card with some umph!”

Morrow is also a facilitator for the YMCA Middle Tennessee “Survivor Fitness” program, which supports survivors in continuing physical activity and regaining strength. Morrow emphasized that resources like this are valuable regardless of how recently someone has completed treatment, saying, “it’s just hard for life.”

For more information, or to explore Morrow’s cards and other resources for patients and families, visit https://www.lulusfight.com/.