In honor of Brenda Clayton
In 2007, Brenda Clayton was chatting with other nurses when they all agreed to get routine skin exams. Everyone’s screen was clear except Brenda’s. A biopsy revealed a malignant melanoma.
“I was terrified,” she says. “I thought I was going to die.”
But then she met Dr. Keith Amos, an oncology surgeon at UNC. “He makes you feel like you’re his only patient. He shared his story about how his mother died of breast cancer and how he decided to dedicate his life to helping people like me. I knew he’d be with me to the end.”
The cancer in Brenda’s back was the size of a sesame seed, but Dr. Amos had to cut several inches deep and wide to make sure absolutely no cancer cells survived. Thankfully, the cancer had not spread. And to this day, she’s still cancer free.
“When I was young, I was fair-skinned but used to do all I could to get a tan—baby oil, iodine, tin foil — the darker I got the better,” she says. “I should’ve known better. But now, well, maybe God uses people. I tell everyone I meet: be diligent about getting screened for skin cancer and be careful about sun exposure. And never use a tanning bed.”