Teacher with breast cancer giving students lifelong lesson

Phyllis Allen told her mother, her daughter and her principal.

But she also had to break the news of her breast cancer to another group: her seniors at Dayton’s Thurgood Marshall High School.

“I wanted to be a good role model for them to see someone with breast cancer,” said the English teacher, who worked despite undergoing a lumpectomy and 40 days of radiation after learning she had cancer last Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Kids need to know

The days are long over when women feel ashamed of breast cancer, said Dr. Thomas Heck, co-medical director of Samaritan Breast Center.

When he began his career nearly 30 years ago, women were reluctant to discuss the disease with their daughters, let alone a class of students, he said.

Heck, a surgeon who specializes in breast diseases, said many of his patients are teachers and they often ask advice on how to talk about the diagnoses with students.

“The kids are aware. They know this is a problem in our country, and they want to be knowledgeable about it,” he said. “You can’t eat (a container of) yogurt without knowing it.”

How much information is shared depends on the age of the students, Heck said.

Teens in particular can understand the concepts involved, he said.

“I think they just need to be very open about it and speak with them in very adult terms,” Heck said, adding that awareness can save lives.

Beowulf vs. Grendel

Showing off letters of encouragement from students, including one comparing her fight against cancer to Beowulf’s epic clash with Grendel in the classic literature she teaches, Allen said support from her students helped get her through the ordeal.

Those who think kids are not compassionate simply don’t know kids, she said.

“One little girl whose grandmother had it would ask ‘How are you doing? Are you tired?’ She kind of looked out for me,” Allen said, adding that a male student sent her routine messages reading ‘R.U.K’ for “Are you OK?”

“I texted back ‘Why are you texting me in the middle of class?’ ” Allen said with a laugh.

Jasmine Sanders and Ja’ree Watkins, both 17-year-olds in one of Allen’s senior languages classes, said they were shocked when they learned bubbly, cheerful Allen had breast cancer.

“I still can’t believe in my mind that she had it,” said Sanders, who recently lost a 20-year-old friend to breast cancer and thought of it as an automatic death sentence.

Now the girls said they are inspired.

“Because she overcame it, it makes me believe that you can overcome cancer. It gives you hope,” Sanders said.

From hush-hush to hope

Giving hope is expressly why Nickie Sattler, computer teacher and director of technology at Dayton Early College Academy, told her students about her breast cancer.

“I wanted to let them know there is nothing to be scared of,” Sattler said, noting that many of her students have family members fighting cancer.

The more the disease is discussed the better when it comes for early detection, Sattler said, noting that cancer was a big unknown when she was a student at St. Rita School.

“It was hush-hush,” she said. “Cancer was the word you mutter under your breath.”

Now students ask questions and want to help find a cure, said Sattler, who learned she had cancer a year ago after a mammogram on her 40th birthday.

Last year DECA students raised $1,700 in Sattler’s honor for breast cancer research.

As a reward, the students dressed their principal and assistant principal from head to toe in pink.

Principal Judy Hennessey shaped her hair into a spiky, pink mohawk to the delight of students.

This year, the goal is to raise at least $1,200, explained DECA senior D’Shyra Norman. If the goal is reached, teachers will be pinked.

“Everyone loves Mrs. Sattler,” Norman said. “Why not help an organization that is fighting what she had.”

Pink out

Students at Northmont Middle School gave flowers, cards and scriptures to support teacher Debi Tamplin during her battle with cancer.

“It helped me fight my battle and I wanted to be there for them,” Tamplin said, adding that she dedicated herself to helping her students understand the disease and why it should be taken seriously.

The Northmont Middle School teacher discovered a lump in her breast in 2006 at age 51.

It was hard breaking the news to her kids, she said.

“Some of them cried. I told them don’t cry. It was all I could do to hold it back,” Tamplin said. “I was trying all I could to hold it together.”

The 1,000 students at the school took breast cancer on as a major cause after two girls gave up their lunch break to raise money in honor of Tamplin.

The middle school has since raised more than $18,000 for the American Cancer Society and its Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign through a variety of activities.

For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the students go extreme, making everything from classroom doors to the hair on their heads pink.

Tamplin said it was important to her that her students knew about her battle.

“I am a strong person. I can influence my kids from being strong,” she said.

Boys wearing pink

Becky Stone, a seventh-grade teacher at Fairborn Baker Middle School, said she couldn’t sit around and think about the cancer discovered after an annual mammogram on Dec. 21, 2007.

The aggressive invasive ductal carcinoma had spread to her lymph nodes.

“The only time I would let myself cry is in the shower,” she said. “I didn’t want to stop living. I really do love my job. I really do love the kids.”

The kids wore pink to support Stone on days she received chemotherapy treatment between February 2008 and April 2009.

“To see eighth-grade boys wearing pink is amazing,” she recalled. “Even one of my Goth kids went off to buy a pink T-shirt. He was in black pants and a pink T-shirt. He said ‘I just want you to know, Mrs. Stone, this is for you.’ ”

The 54-year-old wants students to gain insight from her fight.

“What I hope they learn is to never give up and to keep on living,” she said. “You have to endure something. Life is not rosy. How you react to what you are going through is going to affect your outcome.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2384 or arobinson@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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