Uninsured business owner says free mammogram program saved her life

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Aging Untold) — Kathey Dailey starts many of her days attending appointments at the Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute.

Stomach pain first brought her to the emergency room in 2023.

“And we did X-rays, we did CT scans, we did contrast CT scans,” Dailey said. “By 6:00, an oncologist came in and she said, ‘Have they talked to you?’ And I said, ‘No.’ She says, ‘Well, I’m sorry to let you know you have cancer.’”

“And I just started crying,” Dailey said.

Diagnosis led to first mammogram

Dailey was directed to get a mammogram.

“I was 59 years old and had never had a mammogram,” Dailey said.

Dailey was self-employed and did not have health insurance.

“I was a little nervous and then how I was going to take care of everything,” Dailey said.

Dailey learned Project Pink would cover the cost. Levine Cancer partners with Charlotte Radiology to bring mobile mammogram screenings to uninsured women. The project can also cover a mammogram off the mobile unit.

Dailey is currently fighting stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.

“I was in shock. I cried. My husband was terrified. My daughter was in tears because then it was explained that there’s nothing to do but treat it,” Dailey said. “You’ll live with this.”

Living with the diagnosis

In the past couple of years, it has been “Sort of like things have stopped,” Dailey said.

“The first few months of chemo, I couldn’t even get off the couch,” Dailey said.

“I had an episode that put me in the E.R., and that’s then when I found out the cancer had spread,” Dailey said. “So, I was just like, OK, I don’t even know if I will make it ‘til five years at that point, but I’m thriving through.”

Dailey said she does not know where she would be without the team from Project Pink helping her navigate the process.

“I can call anyone any time,” Dailey said. “And they’re, ‘What can I help you with? What do you need?”

Dailey’s message to other women

Asked what her message would be for other women considering mammograms, Dailey said, “Get it as soon as you can. And I’m saying it as a person that was worried about the cost. Don’t worry about the cost. Worry about finding it. Mammogram saved my life.”

Dr. Rhea Rogers, a board-certified physician, said Dailey’s experience brought back memories of when she was diagnosed.

“That brings back a lot of memories for me. I can understand. I really feel for her because it makes you put things in a different perspective. A lot of times, our priorities, we don’t think about it until it hits home. And for me, I just was very aggressive. They said you have stage 0. And I was like, OK, so that’s confined to the breast. I’m busy. I don’t have time. Just take them off. But that stage 0 was a stage 3.”

Rather than having a lumpectomy, Rogers said she had her breasts removed and then learned that the cancer was more advanced than suspected.

“And I woke up, I had five areas of invasion. I was a stage 3,” she said.

“I was one stage away from her,” Rogers said. “What you have to do is you get back up and, like, she’s doing. But then you can do some other things to try to strengthen your immune system internally, yourself. And I think that’s where we, you know, people forget, you know, we can rely on medicine and all those other things, but we have to give our body what it needs to help us fight.”

Sam Cradduck, a gerontologist, said her best friend had the same thing happen, and the only way doctors caught it was a free mammogram during the month of October because her friend was uninsured.

“You’ve got to do the screening,” she said. “I’ve been self-employed most of my life. ... And there have been times where we’re not insured. But you’ve got to take those opportunities and find those opportunities. There’s a lot, especially in the month of October, where there’s a lot of free screening and a lot of availability.”

“I think the general assumption should be there’s going to be a free one out there,” aging expert Amy O’Rourke said. “I think if you go in with that mindset, you have medical clinics that provide, you have referrals, you have cancer institutes, you have universities, you have lots of nonprofits. I would just say, get the mammogram, get it early, and just take an assumption that this is going to get paid for by somebody.”

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