Breast cancer no match for nurse

When Laura Finney went for a routine mammogram back in May, a breast cancer diagnosis was the last thing she expected.

Finney wasn’t even alarmed when the doctor called her shortly after the exam. After all, her doctor had called about her mammograms in the past, but it was never serious.

This time was different; this time they’d found a lump — a small lump, but a lump nonetheless. Her official diagnosis came in June: invasive ductal carcinoma, a type of breast cancer.

“It’s scary,” Finney said.

“Just to hear the diagnosis, it doesn’t matter how big or how small. Just knowing that’s in your body is not only overwhelming, it’s devastating and shocking.”

Although Finney and her husband moved from Chicago to Katy just two years earlier, she knew exactly where she wanted to receive treatment - the MD Anderson Regional Care Center.

“I hadn’t even thought to go anywhere else,” she said. “MD Anderson is world-renowned.”

Finney had the lump removed at the end of June and is undergoing radiation. 

She is thrilled with the care she’s received at MD Anderson.

“I don’t think I could have had better care anywhere in the world,” Finney said. “The staff has been awesome. If you have questions, they’ll sit down and answer them. They don’t rush you. They’ve spent an hour to an hour and a half just sitting and talking to me. I can walk in and say, ‘Do you think one of the nurses would talk to me? I have a question,’ and they’ll sit and talk to me.’ “

When she’s not focusing her energy on getting well, Finney enjoys crocheting, scrapbooking and traveling between Chicago and Knoxville, Tenn., to visit her daughter and son.

Finney’s husband of 31 years is an avid cyclist and hopes to get her involved in the sport once she’s completed her cancer treatment.

He competed in the recent Houston Tour de Pink charity bicycle race and raised enough funds to donate six mammograms to uninsured or underinsured women in the Houston area.

ABOUT LAURA FINNEY
AGE: 56
OCCUPATION: Retired nurse
COMMUNITY CONNECTION: Katy resident
FAST FACT: Loves dogs; worked as a groomer before her breast cancer diagnosis.