Clarkston gridiron heroes host their Seventh Annual Football for a Cure to raise money for McLaren Breast Center and McLaren Cancer Institute in Clarkston, Aug. 15. In this week’s edition, The Clarkston News sits down with a cancer survivor from McLaren.

Last Friday was a special day for Cindy Jenko – it was her birthday and marked one more year of blowing out the candles and enjoying the day and a birthday weekend with family and friends.
Thirteen years ago, Jenko was a wife and stay-at-home mother of three daughters, who are now 24, 26, and 28 years old.
In a moment it changed. While she was scratching underneath her arm, she found a lump and visited her doctor. She had HER2+, Human’Epidermal growth factor’Receptor?2-positive breast cancer.
“They were kind of young, just entering puberty or about to,” said Jenko about her children. “It was a crazy year.”
She got on the fast track as she did chemotherapy, radiation and was put on Herceptin, which was a new drug at the time and just came on the market.
“Now it is a miracle drug,” Jenko said. “At the time it was a clinical drug and the oncologist said he wanted to use it but ‘I don’t have a protocol.'”
Her oncologist called within a week said he found a protocol and he was going to use the drug on her.
“It saved my life,” Jenko said, adding he would greet her as his miracle patient. “He wrote about it.”
She was in the clear until three years ago. Jenko had to postpone her fall annual mammogram at McLaren Breast Center in Clarkston because a lot of things were going on in her life.
She recheduled it to March and had her mammogram done. She was called the next day.
“‘Cindy, we see a little something,'” she remembered from the phone conversation. “‘Because of your history we want you to come back.’ I thought okay, it’s nothing. It’s been 10 years. I’m cool.”
Dr. Linda Lawrenace did a stereotactic biopsy, pulling out some of the tissue to see what it was.
“She was wonderful,” Jenko said. “It was a good experience.”
Within a couple of days, Jenko received a phone call from her regular OBGYN – the cancer had come back.
Upon hearing the news she went into her manager’s office, where she now works as a legal assistant in Oxford.
“I know I stormed into my manager’s office, slammed the door and swore,” she recalled, trying not to get choked up. “I never swear. They knew something was wrong.
“I just said it’s back and I am going to fight it,” she smiled. “Thankfully I had gone and they were so good at looking things over. Because of my history, they were really efficient.”
She was on the fast track again as she went to see a surgeon and an oncologist. Her option at this point was to have a mastectomy because she already had radiation. From the mastectomy, they would biopsy. She was warned depending on the size of the lump she might or might not need chemotherapy.
“From that point, we were just praying and praying,” Jenko said.
She scheduled the surgery for right after Easter. Then, received good news – it was really small and she didn’t need chemotherapy.
“We caught it early,” she said. “It was a tiny spot, but it was the same spot as before so we didn’t know if not all of it came out the first time. It laid there dormant for 10 years and decided to rear its head. Good thing I was persistent on going. I never missed a mammogram the whole time.”
She admitted it was an emotional rollercoaster and everyone at McLaren was there for her.
“I had a wonderful experience,” she smiled. “They were really great. Even the girls in the office when I would call.”
She said having cancer changed her life.
“You appreciate things a lot more,” Jenko reflected. “You know you can get a diagnose tomorrow or a friend or family member can.You count your blessings a heck of a lot more.”
She also helps others out. A few people have come to her saying they know someone who has cancer and Jenko says to give them her number. She waits for them to call, explaining it’s very personal and some people don’t want to talk about it.
“Other people are like me. I don’t care – the more people who could be praying for me, the better,” she said. “That’s what gets me through. My church family, my immediate family, I have a couple of nurses for best friends, they all rallied behind me. I couldn’t have done it without them. It is definitely something I couldn’t have done on my own. I know some women do, they just internalize it.”
She has participated in Relay for Life and is excited for the Clarkston Wolves’ seventh annual Football for a Cure, as the players raise money for McLaren Breast Center and McLaren Cancer Institute in Clarkston.
“It is awesome,” she said. “I love them for it. I love it and the awareness it brings. I don’t think you can ask somebody the question do you know somebody or has your family been touched with cancer and get a negative answer. It’s everywhere. We need these types of things to keep it in people’s minds. Sometimes when you hear cancer it is so rapid it is part of everyday life you think ‘oh, cancer.’ Guess what? If you are the one hearing you have cancer, it is a definite life changer. You are going to forever be changed. I am blessed to use my experience and help.”
And with fall right around the corner, she smiled and said, “I am due again to make my appointment.”