UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine Fall 2016 | Page 12

“When you
fight cancer,
you also fight
the tremendous
symptoms from
chemotherapy
and what it does
to your body.
I made a vow
with myself
that I wanted
to completely
recover. I did
the work to get
stronger. I ate
everything that
you’re supposed
to. I really put all
I had into it.”

10

U A B

At the time, Ms. Evans was head coach of the
women’s golf team at Auburn University and was
preparing to host the NCAA regional tournament
there in Auburn. For several months prior, she had felt
extreme levels of fatigue, which she mostly attributed
to her schedule of coaching and traveling.
“I would get home from practice, take a shower
and sometimes just have a snack and go to bed. It
didn’t matter if it was 6 or 7:00 at night,” Coach
Evans recalls. “I lost about 10 pounds, and I did bloat.
I had some classic signs. When you travel a lot, eating
granola bars on a golf course, it’s easy not to realize
that’s just not the way your stomach feels all the time.
I was definitely fighting something.”
Coach Evans finally went to a doctor in
Montgomery, who discovered a mass and that she
had elevated levels of CA125, a protein found on
the surface of many ovarian cancer cells. Her doctor
recommended she see a specialist and referred
her to the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Within a few weeks, she was seeing Warner Huh,
M.D., director of the UAB Division of Gynecologic
Oncology and Cancer Center senior scientist. That’s
when she got the news – she had clear cell carcinoma
ovarian cancer.
“I was pretty naïve to cancer,” Coach Evans says.
“I looked it up, and I read about two paragraphs and
thought ‘oh my gosh.’ I never did any more research.
I thought if I look this stuff up, I’ll put myself in the
grave. I didn’t want to think about that.”
Coach Evans immediately began chemotherapy
treatments, and she put her trust in Dr. Huh and her
entire treatment team. “Dr. Huh was so incredibly
good about what to do, and the infusion nurses are
so full of knowledge,” she says. “I had total trust in
Dr. Huh. In all honesty, that’s hard for anyone to do,
trusting in so meone who you’ve just met. But you’ve
got to believe in what you’re doing, and I did.”
Coach Evans’ initial response to chemotherapy was
difficult. She continued to lose weight. She struggled
with eating and staying hydrated, even losing her
sense of taste. She also lost her hair and developed
neuropathy in her hands and feet. “If there was a side
effect to get, I got it.”

C O M P R E H E N S I V E

C A N C E R

C E N T E R

Making a Vow
Because Coach Evans knew that the chemotherapy
was necessary for her to defeat cancer, she committed
to finding ways to manage those side effects of her
treatment.
“When you fight cancer, you also fight the
tremendous symptoms from chemotherapy and what
it does to your body,” she says. “I made a vow with
myself that I wanted to completely recover. I did
the work to get stronger. I ate everything that you’re
supposed to. I really put all I had into it.”
Coach Evans also credits support from her
community, Auburn University and the Auburn
Athletics Department in helping her get through
treatment. Family and friends drove her to and
from Birmingham, and her church and the athletics
department provided meals. The male golf coaches in
the Southeastern Conference all shaved their heads in
solidarity, and their teams wore rally socks and posted
photos on social media to show their support.
“I learned a great deal about what it means to have
people love you, and I don’t know that I had ever
thought about that,” Coach Evans says. “It’s amazing
to have that kind of support, because that’s what gets
you through it.”
Coach Evans completed five rounds of
chemotherapy, and after six months, she was declared
cancer-free in October 2013. With that news, she
made some other changes in her life. She retired from
coaching and took a position as special assistant to the
vice president of student affairs at Auburn. “I thought
that would be really hard on me, but I’m enjoying
my new job and life,” she says. “I retired for no other
reason than to give myself the very best way to live
each day to the fullest and be able to reach out to
other people who are fighting this disease.”
Since finishing her treatment, Coach Evans has
become an active member in the cancer community.
She serves on the boards for the Birmingham-based
Norma Livingston Ovarian Cancer Foundation as
well as the Chicken Salad Chick Foundation. She is
also involved in programs that pair cancer survivors
with patients going through treatment.