Thanksgiving is a day for gratitude — and today, Jill Martin Brooks has an abundance of it. Recently, the TODAY contributor rang the chemo bell, successfully closing a chapter in her breast cancer journey.
After being diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer earlier this year, Jill underwent a double mastectomy and had 17 lymph nodes removed before starting aggressive chemotherapy. After finishing radiation, she’ll have surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes to reduce her risk for ovarian cancer.
Today, she’s giving thanks for how far she's come. “I’m grateful that my body has allowed me to get through this. Cancer wants to take whatever you have — it wants to take your friendships, it wants to take your job, it wants to take your health, it wants to take your hair, it wants to take your family … it wants to take everything. And so you just have to sort of fight where you can, and keep what’s important to you,” she says.
She’s even thanking chemotherapy. “You have to take happy moments and celebrate them when you get them. Part of my journey this Thanksgiving is thanking chemo for helping me beat this disease.”
Jill sat down with TODAY.com to talk about what she’s learned from going through chemo — and the coping strategies she used to persevere.
Ringing the bell is a step and a symbol
Jill says that for many, ringing the bell at the end of chemo is a declaration of “OK, it’s over." But she reminds herself that her journey is just beginning. “I mean, I still have radiation, I still have another surgery, but the chemo … it’s tough. The ringing of the bell is a step.”
More than anything, it’s a symbol of hope and perseverance for Jill. “It’s symbolic of my ability to fight. It’s symbolic of everyone else out there who is fighting and has a milestone to celebrate,” she says.
Reframing ‘beating cancer’
Like many journeys in life, Jill looked at chemotherapy as something that has a typical beginning, middle and end. “But cancer doesn’t work like that,” Jill explains. “You have to know that cancer is so powerful and insidious. You can’t work on beating it — you have to work on strategically dealing with it.”
Jill says that while creating a narrative about her treatment has helped her make sense of — and even make friends with — chemo, it hasn't been easy. “I mean, they walk in in a full hazmat suit … and it’s literally a huge red needle,” Jill says with a laugh.
She opted for one of the most aggressive forms of chemotherapy, what’s dubbed the “red devil” by cancer patients. But Jill says something she initially dreaded has become an unlikely “best friend” these past few months. She came to think of chemo as someone who would fight for her — and alongside her — to either beat the disease or live with it.
Her advice for people just starting treatment? “Visualize chemo differently, and flip it — saying (to yourself) I need the 'red devil' to fight this disease with me. That perspective helps me, and it calms me and it makes chemo less scary.”
The fork in the road is an everyday event
When she reflects on how she copes with living with and treating breast cancer, she says it comes down to making a choice between two different paths. Making a decision — like whether to work during treatment — is a fork in the road, she says. “You can choose the path to lie in bed and cry, which was very easy for me to do. Or I could choose the path that I come to work,” Jill explained.
It can be a decision as simple as getting out of bed or going out for a walk. “It’s every day and it is numerous times a day. Try to pick the 'silver linings' road. And also give yourself grace — but not enough grace to fall apart. You have to push yourself, because otherwise cancer will keep you in bed crying,” she says.
Speaking out and paying it forward
Jill says that her chemo journey has started and ended with gratitude — and that sharing her story with TODAY has been a gift because of its power to touch people's lives.
“The amount of people who have gotten checked, who have tested positive or who are now taking preventive measures ... I would do it all over again.”
As Jill reflects on chemo treatment, she shares what she would have told herself that first day she sat down with the 'red devil': “Hang in there. You’re going to come out better than you were before.”