Marnie Gayle of New Hope is an advocate for early breast screenings. She was just 38 in August 2009 when she had her first mammogram and the doctors found Stage 1 breast cancer.
“(My reaction) was shock,” she said.
She didn’t let herself get too worried — one of the other doctors at the mammogram had already told her he saw something but “if it is cancer it won’t kill you.”
That was the news that kept Gayle and her family’s spirits up through her treatment — which included a double mastectomy, plastic surgery and four rounds of chemotherapy — until March of 2010 when her Memphis-based plastic surgeon put in new breasts.
“I think the worst part for her was probably losing her hair,” her mother Priscilla Coggins said.
Even that part was only terrible the first day when she called her hairdresser in tears, Gayle said. After that, she spent the winter wearing different crochet hats to work. Coggins teased her that when her hair came back, it would be gray and straight like Coggins’ — which it was at first, Gayle said, though it’s since started curling again.
All told, Gayle thinks she was lucky — her experience with surgery and other treatments was a cinch compared to what many women go through, she said.
It also pales in comparison to what her family went through in the following years.
‘We lost half our family to cancer’
About the time of Gayle’s final plastic surgery, her 35-year-old brother Daren Coggins was diagnosed with Stage 4 colorectal cancer. He quickly underwent surgery in Birmingham, Alabama.
Daren was a game warden in Lowndes County who loved being outdoors, Priscilla and Gayle both said. Even going through radiation and chemotherapy, he didn’t miss work unless he absolutely had to.
He got married when he was in remission in 2011. Two months later, the cancer was back.
“When it came back that August, it was in the lungs,” Priscilla said.
Daren’s wife arranged for him to receive a special type of surgery that only a handful of doctors in the U.S. can perform, Priscilla said. She thinks that surgery probably gave him another year. He died in December 2012.
Earlier that same year, Priscilla’s husband Jacky had been diagnosed with a brain tumor after suffering a seizure — the same type of cancer that killed Ted Kennedy, Gayle said. Jacky died in August 2013.
“We lost half our family to cancer,” Priscilla said.
Fundraising efforts
Gayle and her family have been raising money for the American Cancer Society through fundraisers like Relay for Life ever since Gayle was diagnosed. This year, she is one of about 20 honorees for Columbus’ first ever Boots and Bling, a fundraising event for cancer research. Rhonda Richardson, who organized the fundraiser, said she’s known Gayle for years and that she’s been a “big help” with effort.
The honorees are people who have cancer, have survived cancer or died from cancer, Richardson said. They, or their friends and family on their behalf, each have a $2,000 fundraising goal to raise money for the American Cancer Society.
Gayle’s already raised her goal — in no small part due to Halloween buckets she’s been designing and selling for $7. She started making them last month when family members with children visited. When she provided the kids with homemade Halloween buckets imprinted with their names and covered in pictures of spiders, witches and all sorts of creepy crawlies, the children and their mother were delighted.
Now Gayle’s pushing the buckets on social media and taking them to work. She’s sold about 70 so far.
While fundraising is important, what she really wants people to remember is to be proactive about checking for cancer — especially if it runs in the family or if family members have recently been diagnosed.
She and Priscilla both think Daren’s story may have turned out differently if he had gotten cancer screenings in his late 20s, which is when doctors think the cancer may have started to appear. But people that young don’t think about symptoms they’re experiencing being cancer, Priscilla said.
“You need to listen to your bodies,” she said.
Gayle thinks it’s lucky she decided to go through with the baseline mammogram, an early mammogram which doctors use to compare with later ones, but which isn’t supposed to catch cancer. Gayle’s even heard some medical professionals say women don’t really start needing to get routine mammograms until they’re 50.
“I’m saying yeah. Yeah you do,” Gayle said. “That baseline mammogram was the best idea I’ve ever heard of.”
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You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Related Photos
Marnie Gayle sits with her mother, Priscilla Coggins, at Gayle's home in New Hope. Gayle is a breast cancer survivor and honoree at the American Cancer Society's Boots and Bling fundraiser this coming November. To raise money for cancer research, Gayle has been designing and selling Halloween buckets, covered in spooky designs like spiders and witches, and inscribed with children's names. Photo by: Deanna Robinson/Dispatch Staff
Marnie Gayle, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, stands with her uncle, Tommy Coggins, her father Jacky Coggins and a distant cousin Michael Prince at a Relay for Life event a few years ago. All four were diagnosed with cancer, and Jacky Coggins later died of a brain tumor in 2013. Photo by: Courtesy photo
