YOLANDA MCKENNEY

Single mom fights breast cancer, hopes for more ‘angels’

UPDATE: The 44-year-old breast cancer patient and single mother, who is raising three children in Royal Palm Beach, received gift cards, help with food, and toys for the kids. Her co-workers pooled together and sent Season to Share a check for $300 for her. Nominated by The Connie J. Goodale Breast Cancer Foundation.

By LIZ BALMASEDA
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
ROYAL PALM BEACH — In the full and busy life of Yolanda McKenney, there was no room for the cancer. There were three children to raise, a full-time job to keep, a home to maintain, bills to pay, two dogs to care for.
And there was life, a life that included two grown daughters, grandchildren, church, a life gingerly sustained.

But that life was shattered when the 44-year-old single mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. McKenney faced a mastectomy, chemotherapy treatments, radiation therapy and later, reconstructive surgery.
With the exception of minimal time taken for the surgeries, McKenney kept working throughout all of it. She had to. She had no insurance.
“I had to work, even when I was too tired to drive or to walk to the car. There were days when I thought I just couldn’t make it, but I had to,” says the graceful woman, recounting her story in the orderly home she shares with her youngest children, Cameria, 15, Imani, 12, and Malik, 6.

She is a strong woman who prizes work ethic and independence. But when her limited Medicaid coverage ran out, she had no means to pay for critical treatments.
“I called every agency, everyplace I could find, asking for assistance,” she recalls. But she had no luck. Until, one day, a representative of the Connie J. Goodale Breast Cancer Foundation called. The foundation found out about her after McKenney filled out an application for assistance at the office of her Palm Beach Gardens oncologist, Dr. Elisabeth McKeen.

The foundation has been able to cover six months of treatments for McKenney, who continues to require Zoladex injections and $300 monthly sessions to flush the medication port. But it cannot afford to cover additional treatments.
“Even though we have not been able to grant her everything she truly needs, she’s always appreciative. Yolanda is such a pleasure to work with,” says Connie Foundation case manager Elizabeth Schlacher.

McKenney calls the foundation folks “my angels.” She credits them for helping to keep her healthy enough to work. But as the funds will run out soon, McKenney may not be able to receive the essential treatment.
All of her hard work, she says, has been for her children.
“What I want for them is that they grow up believing in themselves,” says McKenney, who works for a workers compensation claims auditing firm. “Nothing is impossible.”

YOLANDA’S WISH
Yolanda McKenney, a 44-year-old breast cancer patient and single mother raising three children in Royal Palm Beach, is facing the loss of funds to continue important cancer-related treatments. She has continued to work full-time, even through her weakest days. She needs assistance in covering much-needed oncology treatments that run $300 a month. She and her three youngest children, ages 15, 12 and 6, also could use supermarket or Wal-Mart gift cards to help with groceries and essentials.

NOMINATED BY
The Connie J. Goodale Breast Cancer Foundation P.O. Box 15015, West Palm Beach, FL, 33416 (561) 966-8699. ConnieFoundation.org.