Less than six months after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Ericka Moore was able to ring the “cancer free” bell at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. She credits the positive attitude she developed over a lifetime of hardship with helping her cope with cancer’s loss of control. (Silver Cross Hospital / HANDOUT)

Because she’d already faced down bullying, heartbreak and even a suicide attempt in her lifetime, Ericka Moore says blasting positivity at a breast cancer diagnosis was a no-brainer.

“I’m an overcomer,” the Tinley Park resident said. “I respect the doctors but I didn’t just go with the worst-case scenario.”

Instead, the author and motivational speaker practiced what she preaches. She took her own advice to help her get through the biggest battle of her life.

“All the things I’d already gone through in life helped prepare me for cancer,” she said.

Before surgery and during subsequent radiation treatments, Moore said she kept her focus on the goal.

She kept a gratitude journal because, she said, thankfulness keeps you balanced and adds perspective. She also maintained a vision board, illustrating how she expected things to go. And when times got tough, she found comfort in her faith and the wisdom of her pastor.

Ericka Moore celebrates the day she was declared "cancer free" at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, accompanied by the radiation team that helped her reach that milestone. (Silver Cross Hospital / HANDOUT)

“I went in (to radiation treatment) every day happy, smiling, bopping. Every time I got on that machine I spoke positive affirmations over myself. I’d say scriptures or ‘these rays are not going to hurt me,’” she said.

The medical staff at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox would “tell me I was one of their favorite patients. They loved my positive attitude.”

“I refused to be scared of cancer. I had made up my mind on Dec. 10 that I was fighting and that I was winning,” she said.

And she did. Less than six months later, on May 13, 2022, dressed in a Superman shirt and cape, Moore rang the bell designating she was cancer free.

“It was a triumph,” she said.

It also was a nod to the resiliency gathered from earlier struggles she’d overcome.

Her health journey began in February 2021 when she discovered a lump in her left armpit. The bump disappeared for a time and then resurfaced, compelling Moore, who’d just acquired health insurance through her job, to see a doctor.

It was early December when she finally had a mammogram that revealed something suspicious — but in the right breast, not the left. On Dec. 10, after a series of tests, Moore was told she likely had breast cancer.

Of course, she was scared.

“I cried. I called my mom and my pastor,” she said. “And then I got into fight mode.”

By the time the Stage 1 diagnosis became official on Dec. 29 and a treatment schedule was arranged, Moore said she was done crying.

“I was braced for battle,” she said.

On Feb. 23, surgeons performed two lumpectomies and removed four lymph nodes. The surgery was followed with more tests to determine if she needed chemotherapy but Moore had already told herself she wouldn’t need it, and she was right.

During her journey, she learned that many other people she knew had quietly endured the same struggle and won.

“I learned that a lot of my friends, my dentist, even one of my clients had had breast cancer. They were overcomers and I never knew it,” she said.

That information further encouraged her to stay positive.

Jody Orr, social worker and case manager with the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center at Silver Cross Hospital, said, while there is no correlation between attitude and survival rates, keeping positive during a health crisis can reap multiple benefits.

“Quality of life in general goes up when you have a positive attitude,” Orr said. “The less stress your body has to put toward other diseases or other stressors, the more it has to fight the cancer.”

People who are positive are also less prone to hospitalization or, if they are admitted, their time there is reduced dramatically, Orr said.

Another benefit, she said, is that a patient’s positivity tends to help the family cope.

“Cancer is not just a one-person disease,” Orr said. “It affects the people around the patient too.

“I see a fair amount of patients’ families who take the diagnosis very hard. It’s just as much out of their control as it is the patient’s. They have to see them suffering,” she said. “So if there’s a genuinely positive attitude on the part of the patient, sometimes it will help the family.”

When a diagnosis is dire, Orr said, some patients will turn to what is within their control to help them stay positive. They will busy themselves with tasks such as completing advanced directives and getting their bank accounts in order, she said.

Everybody who’s diagnosed with cancer loses something — hair loss can lead to loss of self-image. Some people have to cut back on work or skip activities with kids.

“There are losses no matter what,” Orr said.

Focusing on what they can control helps patients deal with the loss of control that accompanies cancer, she said.

Like all of the fires she had battled in her life, the experience reminded Moore of something her 9-year-old nephew said before he unexpectedly died in 2013.

She said a month before he passed away, he said, “Start living your life before it’s too late.”

Since being diagnosed with cancer, Moore has taken that advice to heart. She’d always wanted to drive a Mercedes so she went to dealership and test drove one.

“I’d always wanted to wear a bikini,” she said, so she went and bought one.

“I’m not married but I always wanted to try on wedding dresses, so I went and tried a bunch on,” she said.

She also took a trip to Kentucky to see Noah’s Ark/Ark Encounter. And, this July, she and her brother have plans to go skydiving.

“I’ve done a lot of cool things. Because what was I waiting on?” she said. “When your health takes a hit like that, you look at life differently.”

It’s hard to believe that Moore was once so low that she’d made a plan to end her life.

Bullied as a child, Moore said hardships kept piling up. In 2015, two years after she lost her nephew, her older sister died in a car crash.

It was a dark time, during which she said she was bullied on the job and forced to carry an unbearable workload. Despite working holidays and weekends, she was still struggling financially.

By 2018, she’d descended into such a depression that she decided, “If this is my life, I don’t want it.”

She made an exit plan.

Her pastor convinced her to get help. A few days in a hospital helped her see that she needed to make some changes.

“I made a lot of adjustments,” she said. She found a roommate to help with rent. She let some stressful friendships go and by that year’s end, she had a new job.

“After that I said I will never let myself be in that situation again. It was a healing process. I learned I am in charge of my life and that was very freeing,” she said.

Learning that elements of her life were within her control, she said, helped her stay positive during breast cancer treatment.

She holds two sayings close to her heart:

“I didn’t come this far to come this far,” and, “Every day may not be good but there’s good in every day.”

Donna Vickroy is an award-winning reporter, editor and columnist who worked for the Daily Southtown for 38 years.