DALTON, Ga. — Jenny Maynard remembers Monday, Feb. 9, 2015, vividly. She’d just put students on the bus to go home from Chattanooga Valley Elementary in Flintstone, where she teaches third grade, when she received the call.

Maynard, 39 at the time, sat down to receive confirmation of something she said she already knew.

“Doctors think it’s cancer,” a nurse from Dalton Surgical Group told her. 

Maynard, of Dalton, said she didn’t know what to think or do.

“I was just numb,” she said.

Two days later Maynard was diagnosed with stage 2A breast cancer. She said there is no history of the disease in her family. 

Marcie Beasley, a nurse practitioner at Tennessee Oncology in Chattanooga where Maynard received treatment, said stages differ in breast cancers because of the size of the tumor. Beasley said Maynard’s tumor was larger than two centimeters.  

“Jenny’s tumor had not spread to her lymph nodes, which would make it stage 3,” Beasley said. “Stage 4 breast cancers are metastatic, or have spread outside the breast and lymph nodes.”

Maynard found a lump in her left breast in November of 2014 during a self-check exam.

“I sort of dismissed it because I’m lumpy and fibrotic (having excess fibrous connective tissue) anyway,” she said. 

Maynard said she was due for an annual Pap smear (a cervical screening used to detect potentially precancerous and cancerous cells) and would ask the gynecologist to check the lump.

“I watched (the lump) until the end of December,” she said. “My husband (Dwayne) said I needed to get the lump checked because it was getting bigger.”

When Maynard went to see a doctor in January of 2015 for lab work she told him about the lump. He referred her to another doctor. Two weeks later Maynard went for an ultrasound, and an appointment was made for the removal of the lump.

 On Feb. 5, 2015, she had surgery to remove the lump.

Maynard has been in remission for three-and-a-half years. She gets checkups every three months and alternates mammograms and MRI scans every six months. 

She said after receiving the diagnosis of breast cancer she thought of her two children, Kiersten and Hayden, now 16 and 14.

“I adore both of my kids, but for some reason my daughter kept flashing in my mind,” she said. “I guess because this is mainly a woman’s disease.”

Maynard said all she thought of is how much her daughter would need her through high school, college, marriage and having children.

“I called that the period of the unknown,” she said. “The time when you find out you have cancer until you get answers and a plan.”

Maynard had 16 chemotherapy treatments in five months at Tennessee Oncology, which ended two days before school started in August. She also received 33 radiation treatments.

“Dr. Brooke Daniel, nurse Marcie Beasley and the whole facility is unbelievable,” she said of Tennessee Oncology. “When you’re going through chemo those nurses are angels.”

Beasley said she remembers Maynard’s bravery and positive attitude during the chemotherapy treatments.

“I admired her so much because we are the same age and both working mothers with children,” she said. “Jenny kept such strong faith throughout her treatments.”

Beasley said she also admired Maynard’s honesty in sharing her story on social media.

“I think she provides an inspiration to other young women fighting this disease,” she said.

Maynard said she’s an advocate for self-check exams. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  

“It’s extremely important because my cancer was triple negative (the tumor was estrogen receptor negative, progesterone receptor negative and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative) which is not caused by hormones,” she said. “If you’re not self-checking you’re going to miss something.” 

Maynard said the lump felt like a marble under her skin.

“It’s definitely a different feel,” she said.  

Maynard said she had an “amazing” support team while dealing with breast cancer. 

“My husband was the best,” she said of her mate of 23 years.

Dwayne Maynard said he remembers a “complete, shocking moment of silence” after hearing the news. 

A career technology teacher at Northwest Whitfield High School, he said he could tell in his wife’s voice something was wrong when she called. 

“I heard ‘Honey, I have cancer’ and everything just stopped,” he said. 

Dwayne Maynard said he didn’t know where the cancer was in her body, how long she had to live or if it had spread.

“I did know that my wife is a fighter,” he said. “I knew she would make this negative something positive in her life.”

He said he wanted to support his wife and give her confidence when she didn’t have it. 

“I wanted her to know the person I fell in love with is not defined by hair or breasts, but the person inside,” he said. 

He said when he noticed his wife’s hair coming out he decided to help shave it off.

“I wanted to reassure her I’m in love with her, not the changes,” he said.

He said he encouraged her to work when possible so she could have something to focus on instead of just the treatments. 

Leissa Boyle, of Rossville, is also a breast cancer survivor. She volunteered to help take Jenny Maynard to the chemotherapy treatments. 

“We taught together that year. I was diagnosed in July 2014,” said Boyle, who is now retired. 

Boyle said she couldn’t believe two teachers at the same school had breast cancer.

“We were able to help each other a lot,” she said. “I’d just gone through radiation treatments where she went for chemo.”

Boyle said she knew how “tricky” parking could be so she wanted to help Maynard.  

“It was also good to talk about anything, except what’s going on,” Boyle said. “No one knows how a woman feels except someone who’s heard the words ‘You have breast cancer.’”

In her spare time Maynard crafts, designs shirts and sings. In recent years she’s put together chemo bags for new patients. They include hand sanitizer, crossword puzzles, pens, a devotional book and a blanket.  

“When I was going through chemo I felt a blanket was my constant,” she said. “I carried the same blanket every time, because with breast cancer there is no constant.” 

Maynard said she encourages women with breast cancer to listen to their doctors, allow people to help them and to trust God.

“Trusting God was one of my biggest blessings,” she said. “There were times when I was sitting alone at home and God would speak to me.”

Maynard said she doesn’t remember ever being able to hear him so clear before that time.

“I heard the words ‘free, gone and clear,’” she said. “I knew I was healed.”

Maynard said when she goes to the doctor for checkups now, fear floods her mind, and for days leading up to it she’s “a mess.” 

“I’m quiet and to myself, and I always have to pull myself back to ‘free, gone and clear,’” she said. “I know without a shadow of a doubt God promised me healing.”