It’s all about family.
Heidi May smiles when she thinks about her son Joseph Norris. Ever since the day the Redmond resident decided to have a mastectomy after doctors located cancer in three more places following her lumpectomy, Norris has worn a pink breast-cancer awareness bracelet around one of his wrists.
“It’s very sweet. There’s my strapping young man with this pink bracelet,” May, 49, said of Norris, 26.
May’s daughter Jenica Norris, 27, also delivered in the support realm when her mom was overwhelmed with all the different choices of surgeons for her mastectomy.
“(Jenica) said, ‘Mom, you’re not going to die. Just go with your gut,’” May said about her surgeon decision. “And I think on some level, I just needed to hear that at the time.” May noted that she had a host of other family members there when she needed them.
The mastectomy was successful and May has been cancer free since March 11, 2010.
May, who was diagnosed with breast cancer on Jan. 10, 2010, experienced internal bleeding following her lumpectomy on her left breast that February. Following her mastectomy, she had a few more surgeries that year for reconstruction.
“All in all, for a person who’s never had a surgery before in her life, I had six in 2010 — so it was a rough year. But I guess we just put one foot in front of the other, and I even walked 30 miles in the 3-Day for the Cure in September of that year,” May said of the Susan G. Komen event.
May grew up in Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood and moved to Redmond a little over a year ago and lives there with her boyfriend.
She’s been in the radio broadcast business for many years and she can currently be heard spinning classic hits and oldies from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays on Q104.5 FM. She also does commercial production for the station.
On the volunteer front, May is the marketing chair for the Komen Puget Sound Race for the Cure, which will take place on June 1 at Seattle Center.
After running in the Komen 3-Day, May wanted to get involved with the organization locally, especially after discussing her breast-cancer experience on the air when she was working middays on KJR 95.7 FM.
“When I was diagnosed, I was very open about my diagnosis and I felt like I might be in a position to create more awareness about breast cancer, so I talked about it on the air,” said May, who received copious emails and phone calls from listeners she had an impact on during her on-air talks.
She’s excited about the upcoming Race for the Cure and feels fortunate to be involved with an organization that’s striving to help cure breast cancer. Seventy-five percent of the money raised at the event will stay in the Puget Sound area for underserved and underinsured women and to help different agencies provide mammograms for early detection of breast cancer. The other 25 percent of the money goes toward research and finding a cure for breast cancer.
“I’ve gotten a whole new family through the volunteers and the staff (at Puget Sound Komen). It feels good to give back and it’s my cause,” May said. No one in her family has ever had breast cancer and her daughter will need to be screened when she’s 35.
May has learned a handful of life lessons after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, the most important one being: “I think that it really hit home that life is short. We don’t even know if we’re going to be here tomorrow or in four months or in four years, so I think I have a stronger sense of that life is for living today.”
When it comes to motivation and inspiration, May is tops on son Joseph’s list. She’s everything to him, and to see her in pain was tough, Joseph said.
“If you’re having a bad day, I look at the bracelet — it could be worse,” he said.
Both mother and son will be running in the Seattle Rock ‘n’ Roll half marathon together on June 21.
“She’ll never stop. I feel like I’m keeping up with her,” Joseph said.
