Editor’s note: October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Throughout the month, the Bronx Times will be providing uplifting stories of cancer survivors and the work being done to eradicate the disease.
This time last year, Sandy Motie was preparing for a lumpectomy surgery and subsequent radiation treatment after she found a mass in her left breast just a few months prior. The diagnosis was one nobody wants to hear: breast cancer.
But now the 36-year-old Parkchester resident has completed 16 rounds of chemotherapy, as well as 17 rounds of immunotherapy, a lumpectomy surgery, six weeks of daily radiation, and six months of oral chemotherapy — and is looking ahead to what’s next.
“Time has flown,” Motie, the officer supervisor for the Thoracic Surgery Department at White Plains Hospital in Westchester, said when she caught up with the Bronx Times last month.
“I returned to work at the end of April and I felt like I never left, I jumped right in,” she said. “And I’m just doing everything that I’m supposed to be doing — traveling, going out, having fun.”
Motie said sometimes reflecting on her past year of treatment is hard to process. She remembers the bad days — not being able to get out of bed, relying heavily on her pre-teenage sons for help with cooking and cleaning, the physical changes to her body.
According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer for women in the United States behind skin cancer — accounting for about 30% of all new female cancers detected every year. Data indicates that there is a 1 in 8 chance for a woman in the U.S. to develop breast cancer at some point of her life, and a 1 in 39 chance she will die from the disease. The American Cancer Society does not currently provide breast cancer statistics for gender expansive people.
Motie is one of the 4 million survivors in the U.S., which includes women still being treated for breast cancer and those who have completed treatment.
She said the hardest parts are behind her, just like she knew they would be eventually.
“It takes a toll on your mind, it takes a toll on your body but you just have to get through it,” Motie said. “You just have to think positive. You have to remain strong, follow your treatment plans.”
She’s continued to be open about her experience — even telling patients at her own department at White Plains Hospital, where she herself was also treated, about the details of her cancer journey. Motie shares even the smaller side effects that people don’t talk about, like dry hands and feet, and darkening of the skin.
“I was just sharing my journey with one of my patients who might have to undergo radiation and was a bit worried and scared of the pain, and he was actually motivated to begin it,” she said.
So what’s next for Motie?
Well she and her sons — Devan Gomez, 13, and Jayce Gomez, 8 — just returned to Parkchester after a long anticipated vacation to the Dominican Republic to celebrate Motie’s birthday and the completion of her oral chemo treatment, as well as Devan Gomez’s 13th birthday.
Apart from that, she’s back to work at the Thoracic Surgery Department and excited to join other survivors at her local breast cancer walk later this month.
Motie now has to start a five-year regimen of oral cancer medication, and says a year from today she thinks she’ll be even healthier than she is now.
“Next year, I feel like I’ll be stronger,” she said. “I want to be mindful of the people around me, grateful for my supporters and everyone that has been there and just do what I have to do — follow my treatment plan, eat better, live better, and just do whatever necessary to make it through.”
Correction: A previous version of this story stated that Motie finished chemotherapy in October 2023, but she finished in October 2022.
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
