By Roscoe Nance


Summer Brown is quick to say she is no Superwoman.
 
But the former Bethune-Cookman track & field athlete’s positive attitude and cheery outlook in the wake of being diagnosed with Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is worthy of the Woman of Steel.
 
Despite all that she has gone through in the past 18 months – including being repeatedly misdiagnosed – Brown sprinkles the phrase “I am blessed” throughout conversations about her condition.
 
The cancerous tumor is in the thigh of her left leg and stretches to the pelvic area. She counts it a blessing that it didn’t spread to other areas of her body during the period she was misdiagnosed.
 
She also counts it a blessing the outpouring of support that she has from her former teammates, her alma mater, the MEAC, other HBCUs – and even arch-rival Florida A&M.
 
“The amount of love and empathy,” Brown, a two-time All-MEAC performer who last competed at Bethune-Cookman in 2016, said, “I didn’t expect this. I feel so loved. I am truly blessed. Being an athlete has helped. God did as well. I look at this as a (track) meet. This is like at conference (championships) and I’m competing again. My boyfriend helps with that. He’s like, ‘Okay, you got two events down. You got five more to go, babe.’ That helps me keep my positive attitude. It’s hard to approach something that’s so hard and that’s life-threatening with a positive attitude. But it only brings you down if you’re negative.”
 
Brown’s travails started in August 2017 with pain that radiated from her leg up to her back. Initially, it felt like nothing more than a charley horse, and she pretty much ignored it. The pain persisted. But being an athlete, she was accustomed to pain and pushed through it. It got progressively worse. At various times, doctors told her the problem was the sciatic nerve in her back, a back strain and an IT band issue.
 
Still, the pain continued and Brown, 24, quit her job with Enterprise Car Rental Agency in Orlando, Fla., and moved back home to Glendale, Ariz. She wound up making a couple of trips to the emergency room when the pain became unbearable.
 
In the meantime, she was undergoing physical therapy twice a week. After about four sessions, she woke up two days after Christmas and was unable to walk. Her boyfriend, Malik Lewis – also a former Bethune-Cookman track & field athlete and the father of Brown’s son – took her to the emergency room.
 
There, the physician on duty examined her. Not liking what she saw and felt, she ordered an X-ray and an MRI of her leg.
 
Brown thought, “Finally, we’re getting somewhere.”
 
The doctor was focusing on her leg and not the pain that was radiating up to her back. Next, Brown had an MRI.
 
Once she got the results of the X-ray and MRI, the doctor couldn’t legally give Brown a diagnosis, but she did tell Brown that she was pretty certain a tumor was involved.
 
Brown was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma on New Year’s Eve. It was categorized as stage 4 because of how it was on the bone. She met with an oncologist, hematologist and orthopedist on Jan. 2 and started chemotherapy treatments on Jan. 3.
 
“It’s been a frustrating journey,” she said.
 
Brown has completed two rounds of an estimated five rounds of chemotherapy treatments. Thus far, she says she has not experienced any of the side effects that she was warned of, other than feeling fatigued at times.
 
“I’m blessed,” she said. “My energy level has been up and down. That’s been it.”
 
The 2016 MEAC indoor pentathlon champion says life has been such a whirlwind since Dec. 27 that she hasn’t had a chance to digest all that has taken place.
 
“I didn’t have much time to sit down and grasp everything”’ she said. “From the moment it was speculated that it was a tumor, everything went 360. I was in shock initially. I couldn’t believe it because I was a healthy person and my age. I was so thrown off. Of all things … This whole time, this is what this was. This whole time this is what was? A tumor.”
 
Brown is undergoing inpatient treatments. That means she is in the hospital for five days, goes home – where her mother is her caregiver – for two weeks off and then repeats the cycle. Go back in for five days. She will have a PET scan following her fourth chemotherapy session to assess how effective the treatments have been
 
During the weeks she’s not in the hospital, Brown has blood work done twice a week.  She does a lot of reading on skin care – she is a licensed Aestheticist and her dream is to open her own salon in Orlando when she healthy again – and she goes for long walks and makes sure she gets lots of rest.
 
“I try to keep my mind occupied as much as possible,” she said.
 
Brown has no dietary restrictions, but tries to make sure she gets enough nutrients. She has eliminated sugar from her diet and no longer eats red meat, stays away from processed food and makes sure she eats lots of fruits and vegetables and cooks as often as possible.
 
Brown devotes the majority of her time to her son, Aycen, who will be two on Feb. 23.
 
“He’s so active,” she said. “He’s into everything. It’s his world; if it doesn’t go his way, he lets you know.
 
“I have my moments where I get down. For the most part, I try to attack this thing the way I attack my (track) events: head-on. I’ve had an athlete’s mental approach through it all – being positive, in high spirits, constantly praying. I’ve just been so very blessed and I’m very grateful. I was most definitely in shock. Sometimes I am just wowed by it all. I have my days. I tell people that all the time, I’m not Superwoman 24/7. It gets rough. It gets ugly. I try to get myself back to that positive light. It helps so much.”
 
Brown says her worst day came after her most recent round of chemotherapy.
 
“I felt so crummy,” she said. “I can’t remember ever having the flu. But that’s how I felt, only 10 times worse. I already felt bad. I wanted to feel sorry for myself. You feel so miserable, like ‘just whatever.’ But I had to stay positive.”
 
Brown says her mother and boyfriend helped her refocus and she got past that bad patch.
 
 “I approach every day like, ‘Okay, it’s another day. I’m almost done and I can continue with my goals and my dreams,’” she said. “Me planning out my future helps with this process. It helps me to look forward to something.”
 
Brown’s dream is to move back to Florida, build up her beauty care clientele and open her own salon. 
 
“But my main goal in life before I lay down to rest is to impact others,” she said. “I just love motivating people and inspiring people to be the best they can be. If I can impact and touch as many hearts as possible before I lay down to rest, then I feel like I will have done my job here on Earth as far as serving one another is concerned. I have my selfish goals and then I have my selfless goals. Most definitely, I want to keep flourishing within my passion for aesthetics and as far as being a motivational speaker and impacting women, especially people in my situation. I have a whole different audience now to approach now. In the midst of it all, I want to be the best mommy and Summer I can be.”
 
Not even Superwoman can do more.