Essence Kisqali Ricki Master

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00:00So I'm Rikki Fairley.

00:08I grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland.

00:10I've been a water baby my whole life and to be able to live on the water is my peace.

00:15I had two daughters and we have like a Dartmouth family.

00:18My dad went to Dartmouth, I went to Dartmouth.

00:20So I was a crazy person, worked in an agency, I worked in marketing, I was a brand manager

00:26my whole career.

00:27I basically went to the doctor for my annual checkup and my doctor found the lump on my

00:33breast and said, hmm, something's wrong.

00:35Can you come back tomorrow for a mammogram?

00:38And then can you come back tomorrow for a sonogram?

00:40And can you come back tomorrow for a biopsy?

00:43My doctor called on a two-week business trip.

00:45Yes, Rikki, you do have breast cancer.

00:47And I kind of just didn't really think about it because I had to give a speech the next

00:51day to 300 people.

00:52You know, can I call you back when I get done with my speech?

00:56Literally, that's how crazy it was.

00:57My doctor called me back and said, well, Rikki, not only do you have breast cancer,

01:01but you have triple negative breast cancer.

01:02You really need to come home so we can address it.

01:04Triple negative breast cancer, how bad could that be, right?

01:07What does that mean?

01:08And then I started to Google it.

01:09And it says you're going to die, you're going to die.

01:12If you're black, you're really going to die fast.

01:15So I had triple negative stage 3A.

01:17I had a double mastectomy.

01:19I did six rounds of chemo.

01:20I did six weeks of radiation.

01:23My doctor said, OK, you have no evidence of disease, but come back in two months for

01:26a scan.

01:28And so I went back for a scan.

01:29They found five spots on my chest wall.

01:31And my doctor said, OK, Rikki, you're now metastatic.

01:35That you have about two years to get your affairs in order.

01:38But then when Rikki was diagnosed, I think we all were devastated.

01:42I had a lot of faith, and I think I prayed all the time.

01:46But it's devastating.

01:50And I didn't really know how bad it was until I returned home from school and actually saw

01:56her sick in bed after her double mastectomy.

01:58So Haley just came home.

01:59So she was really my caregiver through my first round of chemo.

02:03Amanda, even though she couldn't be there, she was on the phone on a conference call.

02:06So literally by the time we got out of the doctor's office, she would send me an email

02:10with everything the doctor said.

02:12And she had already researched all the stuff by the time we got to the car.

02:15So everybody was involved.

02:16The day Rikki had surgery, her sister and the kids and I spent the night in the hospital

02:22room with her.

02:23We step in chairs.

02:24They step on the floor.

02:25We were all there.

02:26Nobody was moving.

02:28I didn't ever accept that I was going to die.

02:32I knew that there had to be another way.

02:34And I said, well, I can't really die right now.

02:37I have a daughter at Dartmouth.

02:38I got to pay tuition.

02:39So what are we going to do?

02:41I eventually found the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation.

02:44And I was able to find this wonderful doctor.

02:47Her name is Ruth O'Regan.

02:48And I said, throw the book at me.

02:49What have you got?

02:50I'll take it.

02:51I've always been pretty fearless.

02:52Breast cancer definitely made me fearless.

02:54I did all the drugs.

02:55I took all the things.

02:56I did all the surgeries.

02:57I did everything to the extreme.

02:59And it wasn't fun, but Dr. Reagan put me on some drugs that were then experimental.

03:04I did a lot more chemo, and I didn't die.

03:07We survived.

03:08And that's the story that we need to tell.

03:10It wasn't her time.

03:12The good Lord had another plan for her.

03:14When Haley graduated from Dartmouth, I was like, okay, I made it this far, so now what?

03:21And that's when I knew I had to be an advocate.

03:23I really have to help women.

03:25I have to help black women, because no one could explain to me why everybody's taking

03:28the same drugs, but the black women are dying at a 41% higher mortality rate.

03:33Something is wrong with the science.

03:35And so the only way we're going to get better science is to get more black women into the

03:39science, into the clinical trials.

03:41I'm a marketing person.

03:42So I'm always like, okay, well, why is this happening, and how do we change people's behavior?

03:46Our mission at Touch is to advance science.

03:49We built this website, whenwetrial.org, and it basically is kind of a Wikipedia on clinical

03:54trials.

03:55We have a video gallery, and we have a bunch of women who explain their experience with

04:01trials in words you can spell from voices of experience.

04:05And then we have a portal on that site where you can actually access a trial and get matched

04:09to a trial.

04:10We created this website, Love of My Girls, G-U-R-L-S, you know, our way of spelling it.

04:15But it's really where we connect with young women, and we have our Her Story worksheet

04:19where you can sit down with your mom and your grandma on both sides to talk about your family

04:23history.

04:24Oh, I'm very proud of her.

04:25I'm very proud of her.

04:27I am a proud mother.

04:29In my ideal world, if I had a lot of money, I would buy a Victorian house in every black

04:34neighborhood.

04:35So you open that wrought iron gate, you walk up on the porch, the beautiful black grandmother

04:39gives you a hug, takes your three kids into the playroom, feeds them spaghetti, takes

04:44you into the treatment room, sits you down.

04:45It's a cushy chair.

04:47She gives you a blanket she crocheted.

04:49She gives you a cup of tea with mint from her garden.

04:51She turns on Luther Vandross, and she gives you the shot.

04:55I celebrate every day.

04:56I dance every day somewhere, somehow, in my car, in my house, on Zoom with my granddaughters.

05:04I did find love again.

05:06I found my soulmate.

05:08Ricky was out on the floor dancing.

05:10I went over and asked her to dance, and we got on the floor dancing and didn't stop dancing.

05:18We got married, and he's my happily ever after person.

05:22I had to learn that my peace is non-negotiable.

05:27So I quit my life, and I started a new one, and I moved to the beach.

05:30I really had to be by the water, and this is my peace.

05:33Hi, I'm Ricky Fairley.

05:35Not only am I a cancer survivor, I'm a thriver.

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