When 64-year-old Doris Ballard was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, she never saw it as the end of her story. 

Instead, she prayed to God, trusted in her medical providers and kept moving. 

“The day the doctor told me, I turned it over to God. I prayed and said, ‘I don’t know why I’m having to go on this road, but it is a journey that you know about.’” 

Ballard’s cancer came back in 2022 and metastasized to her hip and shoulder, so she went through more radiation in early 2023. Because of where the cancer spread, cancer cells will remain in her body, but she is still considered in remission. 

“Sometimes we don’t understand, the whys and why nots but you just live your life and do the things you want to do. Trust in your doctor and trust in the Lord and just live,” she said. “I’m living my life and going to enjoy it and praise the Lord every day for it.” 

Throughout her journey, Dr. Steven Corso helped her navigate her cancer treatment along with some tough decisions about how to balance her cancer battle with family life. He encouraged her to see her mother in Arkansas in between treatments, and that trip ended up being vitally important. 

Her mother had gotten sick and died shortly after Ballard left her to come back home to South Carolina. 

“Facing surgery and chemotherapy, she had promised to be here to take care of me and then I found out in Atlanta driving home that she had passed,” Ballard said. “I was grieving her, and I was fighting for my own life. I knew she was saying, ‘You’ve got this, Doris. I’m with you and you’ve got it.’” 

Ballard was also able to travel to North Carolina during her cancer journey so that she could welcome in a new grandchild and be with her daughter as she gave birth. 

Ballard committed early on to focus on the positive and consider how to take the next step forward to what she needed to do to heal and enjoy her life and family. 

“It can come back at any time and the good Lord knows when,” she said. “You just go and do and I’m not going to let this stop me.” 

Today, Ballard spends a lot of time with her family, and she made lifelong friends at Gibbs Cancer Center who have formed somewhat of a “sisterhood” since they can relate to each other’s struggles. She said some days she will visit the chemotherapy patients just to encourage them and give them a smile. 

And to add to Ballard’s mentality of pushing forward, she and her husband just booked an Alaskan cruise. She said it has been on her “bucket list” so they are eager to embark. 

“I always try to have a smile on my face,” she said.