For Jameshia, cancer is ‘not the whole story’ 

Jameshia Below-Washington is many things: an oncology pharmacist, assistant professor, mother and wife. She carries her multiple roles with strength and resilience – determined not to let a disease that once threatened her life define who she is, nor who she will become.

Survivorship has provided her with valuable perspective to pursue challenges and opportunities in her life to chart “forward movement,” said Jameshia, now 33.

Jameshia was in 5th grade, just 11 years old, when she was diagnosed with orbital embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer in the eye socket. The cancer was discovered when she woke up during Thanksgiving break in 2003 with a swollen left eyelid. Until then, she had been an energetic child, active in school plays and holiday programs and competing on her school’s Quiz Bowl team. 

The family had hoped the swelling was nothing serious, but hometown doctors were worried and sent them to specialists in nearby Shreveport, Louisiana, who had more experience with complex medical cases. 

Jameshia remembers a physician using the word “malignant.” 

“I knew that word meant bad, but I didn’t know what else was going on,” Jameshia said. “We were on the way to Memphis by that evening. We drove all night. I didn’t return home for three months.” 

She had been referred to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®, where doctors performed a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis and told her family that Jameshia would receive radiation and chemotherapy. She heard the doctors tell her parents she had been lucky that the tumor grew outward, rather than inward toward the brain, which would have made it harder to detect and treat. 

“I just focused on getting through every step,” Jameshia said. “I would focus on my appointments in clinic and the MRI, but also the good things. St. Jude was so colorful. There were always games to play, puzzles, crafts to do between appointments. It helped me still feel like a kid, even when things were scary.” 

Between appointments Jameshia read the Harry Potter series, drawn to the story of children who could do magic, she said, because she was fascinated by “the power to do things beyond what seems possible.” 

After three months of both radiotherapy and chemotherapy, she returned home and completed nine additional months of chemotherapy at a St. Jude affiliate clinic one hour away. 

When treatment ended, Jameshia forged ahead, reacclimating to a new normal. She said that things felt different, but rather than allowing cancer to become her identity, she chose to build a full life, pursuing education and leadership opportunities, focusing on growth without centering on illness.

She excelled in school, science in particular, drawn to problem solving and patient care. She decided to become a pharmacist. It wasn’t until she was in pharmacy school, more than a decade after her diagnosis and cancer treatment that she began to speak more openly about her experience with serious illness and its emotional impact.

 “There was a lot of untapped hurt and emotion that I’m only now, in the last few years, beginning to understand and process,” Jameshia said. “At the time, I thought being strong meant pushing through. Now I understand that strength also means allowing space for emotions and learning from them.”

She married her pharmacy school classmate and is now the mother of four children, ages 13 to 2. 

On most afternoons and weekends, she can be found shuttling her children to and from dance, competitive cheer practices and karate, and cheering at sporting events. During the week, she is an Assistant Professor and clinical pharmacist at a university in Louisiana, the same school where she completed her Bachelors in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Doctor of Pharmacy degree, and two additional years of post-graduate pharmacy residency.

 Additionally, she practices at a medical center, where she works alongside oncologists and nurses to review treatment plans for cancer patients, counseling them on chemotherapy regimens and managing medications used to treat side effects and complications. She brings her own experience as a cancer patient to the counseling she provides patients, and to the training and mentorship she provides pharmacy students who are on her oncology rotation.

She tells her pharmacy students to treat the whole patient, without exclusively focusing on the cancer. It aligns with a personal reminder:

“Accept that cancer is part of you who are, but it is not the whole story. You are so much more than a survivor. It doesn’t have to encompass your entire life.”

 She remembers to relish simple moments: evenings making pizza with her kids or learning line dancing, just because she wants to try something new. It’s okay, she tells herself, to not have a plan and for things not to go perfectly. 

When her 6-year-old daughter woke up with a swollen eye recently, she had to calm her inner panic that wondered if her child had cancer and that she was the cause of it. 

“I didn’t speak my fears out loud, but they were there. I was battling with the what if, ‘what if the kids get sick and they inherited it from me,’” she said, “but I also knew I want my kids to see calm, not panic.”  

She is cognizant of how her children mirror her emotions and insecurities, and how important it is to give herself grace and understanding.

Survivorship has taught her “how to manage fear and live in the present moment,” she said. 

“Motherhood has given me the ability to grow, learn and develop into who I am,” she said. “At every stage, you almost have to relearn yourself, because life tends to be imperfect and unplanned.”

Jameshia last came to St. Jude in 2016 as a participant of the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study (St. Jude LIFE), a groundbreaking research study of long-term childhood cancer survivors. This research leads to a deeper understanding of the effects of cancer treatments and supports the development of survivorship plans. She is due to return for another St. Jude LIFE evaluation this year. On her trips to Memphis, she usually walks around the campus taking in the range of updates and expansion (St. Jude has added more research buildings and patient care spaces since she was treated), visits the gift shop and the pavilion. During her last visit to Memphis she explored the National Civil Rights Museum. This year, she plans to bring her husband and children to show them her experience and share some of the great memories about St. Jude and Memphis with them. 

She says while cancer remains a part of her story, “it no longer commands the narrative.”

“Instead, my life is shaped by purpose, service, and growth,” Jameshia said. “(I am) proof of what is possible when children receive not only lifesaving treatment, but the support to become everything they were meant to be.”