MICHELLE LEE WHITLOCK
Advocate, Author, Motivational Speaker, Survivor
Michelle developed her keen sense of leadership, resilience, drive and survivorship early in life. She was born in 1975 and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland just outside the Nation’s Capital. Abandoned by her mother at age three, Michelle and her two sisters were raised by her struggling single father. He suffered a serious injury in 1986 and was never able to work again. As the middle child, Michelle emerged as the leader and care-taker (with the help of the grandmother) for her two sisters and often her father, as he was in and out of the hospital.
During high school, Michelle watched as her father battled bouts of depression and drug abuse. Determined to have a better life, Michelle began working her senior year. Her father past away when she was just twenty-one. Michelle remained the family anchor against the storm, while her sisters fell into the devastating clutches of addiction.
After taking a few years off from school to save money, Michelle went back to school where she learned the delicate balance between full-time work and full-time school. A member of The Phi Theta Kappa Society, she earned an Associates of Arts in Business Administration in 1997 from Montgomery College. She went on to Columbia Union College and graduated ‘Cum Laude’ in 2002 with a Bachelors of Science in Organizational Management.
Michelle was busy climbing the corporate ladder; giving no thought to motherhood in late 2001, when at just 26 her world came to a screeching halt—she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The GYN-oncologist told Michelle she needed a radical hysterectomy immediately, which would leave her unable to bear children. Having no children, Michelle in her feisty way, set out to find other options. She researched treatments, sought out a second opinion and challenged her doctors with the difficult and often uncomfortable questions. In the end, she opted for a radical trachelectomy—a fertility saving procedure.
Although this procedure has good success rates, Michelle is not one of them. Just two short years later, at 29 her cancer returned, only days after her boyfriend proposed. Doctors urged her to undergo a radical hysterectomy once again. Michelle refused, determined to find a way to save her fertility. Again, she researched, asked questions and sought additional medical opinions. None of the answers she found were different, however the delivery of the message varied greatly between doctors. Wanting to be seen as more than a cancer patient, Michelle carefully selected doctors who recognized her as a young woman fighting for her future and the life she envisioned.
In a matter of eight weeks, Michelle with the help of her team of doctors harvested eggs, created 7 embryos—‘maybe babies’, flew to Jamaica, got married, and ten days later checked into the hospital for treatment. Michelle underwent the radical hysterectomy, a partial vaginalectomy and removal of some lymph nodes; followed by 5.5 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy.
Today, she has worked for the same Retail Company for over sixteen years. She climbed the ladder from a part-time sales associate to an executive, who has achieved many successes and awards along the way. Determined no other women should suffer from this preventable disease the way she did, Michelle started sharing her story. She has combined her years of leadership with her passion for education to help thousands of women across the Nation.
Michelle believes in giving back to the community and holds the following positions:
- Director, The Pearl of Wisdom Campaign to End Cervical Cancer for Tamika & Friends Inc
- Chair, West Region Women’s Cancer Subcommittee of the Tennessee Comprehensive Cancer Control Coalition (TC4)
- Director of The Mid-South Chapter of the NCCC (National Cervical Cancer Coalition) serving TN, AR, & MS.