Lifting spirits

On the morning of Nov. 3, Mountain Brook Elementary administration called for an evacuation drill. It was routine, albeit oddly soon after the last drill they had, but no one truly thought anything of it. That is, until each class was handed a pink balloon.

Teachers and kids all asked what the balloons were for and what they were supposed to do, but they didn’t get their answer until MBE art teacher Kendra Haddock was welcomed on to the field. 

Haddock was recently chosen as the school’s teacher of the year by the MBE team for her work with the school and its students. She also has stage four breast cancer.

She was first diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, or IBC, in January 2016 and had a double mastectomy that same fall.

In January 2017, she was diagnosed with cancer again and began receiving weekly immunotherapy treatment at MD Anderson in Houston starting in February — but she still went to school and taught during the days she was not out of the state. Principal Ashley McCombs said she even created videos for the students to help instruct her classes when she was gone.

About eight weeks into the treatment, Haddock noticed her rash — which is caused by IBC — was worsening. Her doctor at MD Anderson told her the treatment was not working. 

“She said, ‘Well, I think the best option for you is to go home and spend time with your family, because … you have 18 months to live,’” Haddock said. “I don’t know what my doctor’s at MD Anderson religion was, but she told me that if I believed in a higher power or something up there, I needed to pray for a miracle. And you know what, my God is all about miracles.”

Haddock saw her first oncologist, Allen Yielding — who is also a MBE graduate — the next morning. When she walked into his office, he said the words that flooded her with relief: “She’s wrong.”

“‘She can’t tell you 18 months,’” Haddock recalled him saying. “My cancer is stage four, but it’s still in the breast, in the lymph nodes, but it hasn’t gone anywhere else. It’s come back three times; it’s never come back somewhere else. Those are unusual things.”

She also spoke with a second oncologist, Andres Forero, who communicated with Yielding and worked with Haddock.

She went into remission after about six months of chemotherapy, but that only lasted for three weeks. Haddock was re-diagnosed in September 2017, just after the start of the new school year.

To combat the cancer this time, she will be taking a medication that targets the cancer cells and not her normal blood cells as chemotherapy would. Haddock hopes she is able to take the new drug long-term to combat the cancer as there are no major side effects.

“I just decided I have two choices: live or die. And I’m not ready to die,” she said with tears in her eyes, thinking back to the previous 18-month prognosis. 

And in the meantime, Haddock can still be found in her classroom at MBE with the support of her coworkers. She said she’s had a great amount of encouragement and help from everyone both in and out of school, all of whom want to help make her life a little bit easier. 

“They’ve just gone above and beyond for me and my family,” she said. “I have that family here. And the parents are so sweet … I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.”

The MBE community — faculty, administration, students and parents — came together again for Haddock during the balloon release, just as another way to show they are all there for her and her family. 

“We love you, Mrs. Haddock,” said assistant principal Brannon Aaron, moments before the school released a flock of pink balloons into the sky to the cheers and whistles of everyone.