The Cancer Stories: Mercedes Huff

Thanks to community members who have graciously shared their personal and poignant stories, St. John's Health is honored to share the real-life experiences of local cancer patients and their challenging and often complex journey to healing. It's a road that St. John's Health is working to make shorter by bringing comprehensive cancer care, including radiation therapy, closer to home.

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When local Jackson realtor Mercedes Huff first discovered a tiny lump in her breast in 2015, she didn’t think something so small would end up having such a massive impact on her life.

“I thought it should be checked out, but at that point I wasn’t very worried—I thought it might have been just a small, non-malignant growth,” she says.

Only a few weeks before, Huff had gone in for her annual mammogram and received a clear report. So, when Dr. C. John Haling, radiologist at St. John’s Health, called to tell Huff she had cancer, she was stunned.

“I felt like a deer in the headlights. Many scary thoughts raced through my mind. What would this mean? How would I share this with my children?”

Huff was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Stage 3 cancer. Luckily, they’d caught it early. According to Dr. Haling, had Huff not noticed the miniscule lump between her yearly mammograms, “we may not have been having the same conversation.”

After her diagnosis, Huff had a strong team of supporters that rallied around her, including her adult daughters, and her doctors and nurses at St. John’s Health and John Hunstman Cancer Center. “From the very beginning of treatment, I felt confident with the care team at St. John’s Health. I knew I was in the best hands with extremely capable professionals.”

Over the next nine months of treatment—including four months of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and six weeks of radiation—that confidence and trust would prove essential.

“I received chemotherapy from July 2015 through October 2015. Each time I arrived at St. John’s for my infusion, I was surrounded by a team of incredible caring nurses who eventually became my friends,” says Huff. “During that time, I put full confidence in my doctors, which gave me a strong sense of peace.”

In 2015, St. John’s Health did not have an oncology surgeon on staff. As a result, Huff’s surgery and radiation would need to take place in Salt Lake City.

“I was extremely lucky to have some friends who owned a condo in Salt Lake who weren’t using it that winter, so I was able to stay there for the six weeks of my radiation treatment,” recalls Huff. “I didn’t have to pay rent, and it gave me a sense of being in a home as opposed to a hotel room.”

Huff also notes she was fortunate to have insurance, support from her daughters and friends, and a job that allowed her to continue working remotely from Salt Lake.

However, despite her positive situation, Huff says it still wasn’t as comfortable as being at home in Jackson. “Salt Lake City just wasn’t home, and I was alone,” she says.

“Although I was lucky to have a nice place to stay, it would have been so much better to be home. I would have found staying here, under the care of Dr. Melissa J. Cohen, so much more comfortable. I wouldn’t have felt so alone and at a distance.”

Now 10-years out from her cancer journey, Huff’s days are once again filled with work, travel, grandchildren and joy. “I’m so thankful for all the care I received from my teams in Jackson and Salt Lake,” she says.

Huff is hopeful that in the future, patients in the Jackson community may not need to travel so far from home to receive the treatment they need to recover the way she did.

“It would make me very happy to think someone could go through this entire journey right here in our community. Having lived in Jackson and watched this community expand its medical capabilities from the basic general practitioner model to a full scope of specialists, I feel it's absolutely the right time to bring radiation oncology to our community and surrounding region. What a gift!”

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Thanks to our generous community, the road to healing is about to get shorter. To learn more about our plans for a comprehensive new cancer center, visit www.stjohns.health/cancercenter. 

Those interested in supporting the Foundation campaign are invited to contact Foundation President Anna Olson at 307-690-7669.