GLENDO – It’s not easy to have a spotlight shown on you, but sometimes, it’s important to share your story. You never know. It may have a bigger impact than you realized.
For Leigh Hill, a 45-year-old wife and mom of three girls, life is good. She’s lived in Glendo for nine years, and her girls are going to a good school which has helped them blossom. She is active in youth group, her church, helping with community dinners every month, and traveling back and forth to her daughter’s basketball practices. Hill is also the manager of the Glendo School cafeteria and works at Wheatland school cafeterias on Fridays. Her oldest daughter is a sophomore at Chadron State, and she has two daughters at home: one is 13, the other is 8.
Hill is happy and content in her life, but there was a time she wasn’t sure what her future held.
On Sept. 15, 2011, at just 32 years of age, Hill was diagnosed with a type of invasive ductile, estrogen-positive breast cancer. Her oldest daughter was six years old at the time, and she had a seven-month-old baby. She had noticed a lump that was unusual and decided to have it checked out – she’s glad she did. Fortunately, the cancer was just in stage one and not in the lymphs. Her doctor at the time was able to perform a single mastectomy and successfully remove the cancerous growth on Oct. 11, 2011, the day she considers herself cancer-free.
Her journey didn’t end there since she still had three months of chemotherapy and five years of anti-cancer / chemo pills. She has also made sure to have annual mammograms.
“It was hard at first. My mother-in-law and mother came to stay because I couldn’t lift my seven-month-old daughter…and I was so scared at first,” Hill recalled. “I wondered: if I have it, does my baby girl have it? She was fine. I was worried when I lost my hair that my baby wouldn’t want me or recognize me. When my mom shaved my head, I remember my daughter reached for me, asking me to come to her. She remembered me! It helped tremendously.”

Leigh said her faith in God, prayer, and a very supportive family helped her overcome her many fears, and before the only surgery she has ever had, she felt a sense of calmness that she says could only have come from God.
“Not long after I was diagnosed, it seemed all I did was cry, but people would text me every day and tell me they were praying. They would call to check on me. Everybody from the Sunday School class signed a card letting me know they were praying for me,” Hill said.
She described those early days and months as emotional, but it always helped when people she knew – and didn’t know – gave her so much support. Even an old childhood friend she hadn’t seen since in years texted often to make sure she was still okay.
“I can still remember how much it meant that she kept texting me…The community support really helped… at the beginning, I kept thinking about the worst case scenarios, but the more I learned, the more I understood, the better I felt. My oncologist was also very positive the cancer would never come back, and said it was good I caught it early,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions.”
Financially, the experience of Hill’s breast cancer diagnosis and treatment was a hardship. She didn’t have insurance, couldn’t get on Medicaid, but the community she lived in at the time in Stewart, Mississippi had a fundraiser and helped pay $20,000 in medical expenses. It made a huge difference for her family. “The community was wonderful,” Leigh said. “People helped out to get presents for our girls for Christmas – people just stepped up. They have good hearts. I was never in want because the bills and everything were taken care of. The people here in this community are the same way.”
Getting out and doing things helped her along in her journey as well.
Her hair started growing back within four months. “I had gone on a beach trip with my cousin. I had enough fuzz I went without my headscarf, and went out to eat and I felt the wind in my hair. I thought, ‘I just went through something huge – and look! I’ve got hair!”
Lee said in 2014 she went with a group of people to a Susan G. Koman walk, as a breast cancer survivor. “That was cool to hear other people’s stories. I don’t like a lot of attention, but I realized this [battle] isn’t happening just to me – other people have gone through it as well.”
Her advice – for anyone who wants to take it, make sure to get your mammograms, or at the very least, learn how to do self-checks. Surround yourself with a community of people who will support you. If you don’t have that, reach out to someone who can help you find that system of encouragement. Learn and be informed about the type of thing you are going through, and learn the truth so you aren’t bogged down in fears – don’t be afraid to ask your doctor or support group questions.
And to everyone else: don’t be afraid to let someone know you care – you never know what you can do by just reaching out.