Breast cancer at 30: What one teacher learned

July 21. 2009. 10:50 a.m. That’s when 30-year-old Courtney Hubbard found out she had breast cancer.

“I was devastated,” said the schoolteacher. “The doctor told me to quit work because for the next year, my job was to fight for my life.”

And fight she did. With a lot of help from her friends, family and co-workers, but especially from her church. Within a week, Hubbard decided to commute between her Mississippi home and M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Even before she left, people from St. Paul United Methodist were at her door with meals for her family, plane tickets for the many required trips, and checks to tide the family over in the tough times the year would bring.

Hubbard’s diagnosis wasn’t the first time she’d faced adversity. Her twins, Brock and Maura Kay, were born premature. Later, the baby of the family, Brayson, was born without an ear. She’d lost a niece and a young student.  She believes those events just made her stronger and made her depend on God all the more.

“I remember thinking briefly, ‘this just isn’t fair,’” she says. “But I didn’t ask, ‘why me?’  It wasn’t so much about me as it was about all the people I loved who had to worry about me. I hated the inconvenience, heartache and worry my cancer meant for everyone else.”

Instead of blaming God, Hubbard “dove into” her faith.

“I looked to God more and depended on Him more as well,” she said.  “I bought lots of Christian books, listened to tapes on healing, and loaded my IPOD with Christian music. At the time we weren’t tithing, but then it became our main priority. God had blessed us with so much – we never needed, or worried, or wanted for money – that it seemed right to do. To this day, I’m not happy until our check gets in the offering plate.”

Fast forward one year later.

Courtney Hubbard is home and back to teaching her beloved second graders. Her classroom, with its hot pink, lime green, orange and yellow striped walls draped with feather boas, is once again a happy place. A multi-colored beach umbrella and a stool covered with zebra print anchor the reading area. There are signs of faith and hope – literally – everywhere.

Hubbard still struggles with actually saying the “c-word,” but “thank you” are two words she has no trouble expressing.

“This journey of mine has been battled by so many,” she says. “So many people have allowed God to use them to bless us.”

Hubbard is now considered “cancer-free,” but knows there will be more bumps in the road. She’ll take a cancer drug for the next five years.

“God has really used this illness to slow me down and make me cherish every moment,” Hubbard said. “I used to run around like a wild woman, but now I stop and smell the flowers because life is too precious and too short.” - By Susan Passi-Klaus