Kerry Potts, now cancer-free, battled the disease during the early days of the pandemic
It’s been more than five years since Kerry Potts, now 54, was diagnosed in January 2020 with HER2-positive and estrogen and progesterone-positive, triple-positive, stage 1 breast cancer after a routine ultrasound. Only weeks later, everyone’s lives changed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kerry is a nurse. She’s been a school nurse, owned a nutrition company, and currently she teaches nursing students at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. She also works per diem for Yale. Very familiar with healthcare and wellness, she shared that she comes from a family with a history of breast cancer.
“My mother and maternal grandmother had breast cancer, as well as many second cousins,” she said. “It was scary because I was so young. My family was upset, but we were very positive with the kids, so that helped. I felt that I just had to keep going as normally as possible for my children.”
And it helped that her prognosis was good, she said.
“I had 12 weeks of Taxol and Herceptin followed by partial mastectomy and radiation, then 14 more rounds of Herceptin,” she explained. “This was all during COVID-19, so they also gave me some hormones since my surgery was delayed. I then did five years of tamoxifen.”
A married mother of three, Alec, 25, Colby, 21, and Abigail, 19, Kerry is now cancer-free, off all her medication, and about to enter the survivorship clinic.
“Right after I was diagnosed and told all my friends, they all got together and held a dinner for me. It was a few nights before I started chemo, which was amazing,” she recalled. “I feel really lucky with everything.”
“My support system was incredible,” she said. “My friends and family jumped right in and helped with everything, including coming to chemo …until COVID. My town was also supportive. Lots of gifts and meals. My kids were great. My daughter brought me tea every night. My friends were amazing, and since it was during COVID, they organized a drive-by celebration when I finished chemo.”
She had a lot of support, she said, but added that it would have been helpful in those early days to have “had someone like me now to talk to."
“When I first started this journey, I wish I’d heard more things that were positive. Instead of hearing about how hard it is. It would have been nice to find someone who has been through what you are about to go through and talk to them and get uplifting, positive feedback.”
Previously, and still, a very active Kerry loves skiing, reading, walking, exercise, and open-water swimming.
And about skiing …
“My best friend's daughter, who is also like a daughter to me, was diagnosed with leukemia right before me. She and I are both very huge skiers. She said, ‘I'm gonna ask my oncologist if I'm allowed to ski.’ Her doctor told her they had never had anyone ask that before. So I asked my doctor the same: ‘Am I allowed to ski?’ We both ended up skiing together … with no hair and our helmets on. That’s a moment I won’t forget.”
Kerry said that while she’s “always felt grateful for my beautiful family and great friends,” her gratitude was tenfold as she battled breast cancer.
“I was even more grateful after my diagnosis. Living in such an amazing community made everything more manageable,” she said. “I think the most important lesson I learned from this experience is to spend time with the people you love now because it can change quickly.”
Kerry and family and friends did the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation’s signature fundraiser, the Walk for a Cure, half-marathon in 2024.
Walking, just getting outside and walking, she said, was extremely important in her breast cancer journey.
“My husband, Tyler, was great and was really motivated to help me walk every day during chemo, and I think that made a huge difference,” she said. “I’d encourage women to get up every day -- even if it’s a half-mile walk. Do it if you can. Get outside if you can. I wasn’t able to every day, but I tried not to miss a day to get out and walk. Even for a little bit.”