Women Who Inspire: Anna Smith Foy

At first Anna Smith Foy and her parents thought she’d hurt her leg during gymnastics training.

But when scans of her leg revealed a tumor, Anna was immediately referred to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®. 

It was March of 1994, and Anna was 13. She was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in her left leg.

Mary Katherine Smith, her mom, stayed at St. Jude with Anna, while her late husband was at home with their two other daughters. 

“We felt wrapped up and safe,” she said. “It was not just the nursing staff and the doctors. Everybody we met was just wonderful. They were like family.”

But for Anna, now 44, it was all about the nurses. 

“They were wonderful,” Anna said.

As a young teen, 300 miles from her Mississippi hometown, all Anna wanted was to feel normal. And the nurses did that — even after she was bald following chemotherapy or grew thin after limb-sparing surgery or struggled to get around using wheelchairs and crutches. 

They were all kind and helpful with ways, like bringing a deck of cards for a quick game before wound care, to make her feel comfortable and connected.

She was a patient. But she was also a person. 

“I didn’t want to be a doctor. I wanted to be a nurse,” Anna said. “Specifically, a nurse. Doctors are in and out. They come in, they say their piece, they check on things, they make decisions and they’re gone. But those nurses are always there, left behind to pick up the pieces. They really impacted me.”

After about a year in treatment, Anna went home, graduated from high school and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. 

She worked as a pediatric oncology nurse for 10 years and spent another four years at a children’s hospital as an educator for pediatric oncology nurses.

As a nurse, she related personally with her patients as they’d undergo many of the same treatments she had. Colleagues were always free to call on her to comfort and reassure their patients. 

“Sometimes I was able to say I had the exact same cancer you had,” she said. “And then I could lift my pant leg and show them my scars.”

She survived childhood cancer, married her college sweetheart, Jonathan Foy and had sons, Jon Bradley, 11, and Grant, 9. 

For more than six years, she’s worked for a pharmaceuticals company, first in pediatric and now in adult oncology. And Anna also serves on the board of a cancer nonprofit organization in Texas.

Mary Katherine didn’t know about Anna’s career decision all those years ago. She and her husband were more focused on her treatment. 

But she’s not surprised.

Anna flourished after leaving St. Jude and became even more single-minded than ever. Even her grades improved. 

She became more compassionate and wanted to do more with her life, said her proud mom.

“The nurses impacted me in a way that I could never repay,” Anna said. 

She had to become one of them.