Lowe aims high for breast cancer awareness

Chaunte Lowe is a champion, both on and off the track.

As one of the world’s leading high jumpers, she has become a 12-time US champion who also counts a world indoor gold among her many accolades, but her impact goes far beyond the field of play. The four-time Olympian’s achievements in the athletics arena may have provided a platform, but her experiences, determination and fight now mean she is a champion for so much more.

In June 2019 the then 35-year-old was diagnosed with breast cancer, but her battle had begun almost a year before that, when she found a small lump but was told she was too young to have a mammogram. At that time it was diagnosed as a lymph node and so she returned home, relieved and ready to undergo the required treatment to make it go away. Only it didn’t.

Throughout October she has been supporting Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but the 2008 Olympic bronze medallist – who is also a motivational speaker – is constantly championing change. Now cancer free, she knows that early detection is key.

Chaunte Lowe, 12-time national high jump champion, competes during the 2016 US Olympic Trials (© Getty Images)

“It was a tiny rice-sized lump that I knew hadn’t been there even two weeks or the month before,” Lowe explains. “The doctor just looked at me and was like, ‘no, you need to gain some weight’ and he said not to come back for six years,” she adds, with mammograms usually only recommended for women over the age of 40.

“So, I believed him and thought, ‘oh good, but that was a scare. Let me eat right, let me do everything that I always promise myself that I’m going to do’. As an athlete, we know our bodies, and when you say lymph node then I’m going to go and do all the research and figure out how to make this lymph node get smaller. But I’m doing all the things, and it’s getting bigger.”

Eleven months later, she went back to the doctor and had to really push for further investigation. They eventually did the test and found the lump had tripled in size. She was immediately sent for a biopsy.

“I go for the biopsy and it was so hard, because we had just lost Gabe,” she adds, with the US distance runner and inspirational rare cancer advocate Gabriele Grunewald having died just days before.

“It turned out that it was breast cancer, and it was a very aggressive form of fast-growing breast cancer.”

One in eight

The World Health Organisation states that as of the end of 2020, there were 7.8 million women alive who were diagnosed with breast cancer in the previous five years, making it the world’s most prevalent cancer. Among the statistics Lowe shares is that one in eight women in America will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime.

“One in eight – that’s absurd,” she says. “When I learned that statistic, I also learned that African American women are 40 per cent more likely to die of breast cancer than our white counterparts.”

Now, as well as being a global ambassador for the American Cancer Society, Lowe has partnered with breast cancer organisation Susan G. Komen and pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly who are taking action to improve breast cancer health equity.

“One of the things that is really important for me is to have somebody that can help navigate things through, because as soon as you are diagnosed with breast cancer, or as soon as I was, they pushed me through this tunnel and everything happened at lightning speed,” she says. “My mind was spinning so much that I couldn’t even comprehend the information that they were giving me. So, to have somebody who is competent, who understands the barriers that are unique to African Americans; that is there, put in place. I am not only an advocate for African American women, but that is where the need is right now, so I am happy about that partnership, but I still continue to advocate for all women, worldwide, not even just here in the US.”

So, for Lowe, quitting had never been an option. Despite undergoing a double mastectomy and chemotherapy, she continued to train through her treatment as she targeted a return to competition, knowing the profile that would bring in raising awareness.

(© Chaunte Lowe)

Lowe’s aim had been to compete at a fifth Olympic Games in Tokyo and she made her competitive comeback in March, clearing 1.80m at two meetings in Florida. The 37-year-old felt like she was building back well on track ahead of the US Olympic Trials, but then she, her husband and their three children all contracted Covid-19.

“Having the opportunity to compete in the Olympics four separate times, I had seen the huge section dedicated to media,” she says. “The world is watching.

“I felt like it was important to, number one, have a goal to push through (during her cancer treatment). When the days got hard, if I ever thought of giving up, to have that goal was monumental. But then I knew that if I got there, that there would be an opportunity to share this message. I told myself that even if one woman or man heard it and checked themselves, and they found a lump and it saved their life and maybe their kids got to keep their parent, that was enough for me.

“I have had a tremendous amount of people reach out to me and say, ‘because of you, I got my mammogram’ or ‘I was just diagnosed, can you please share your experience with me?’ And I talk with them. It’s probably the most rewarding job I’ve ever had.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Resilience

After all she had been through, missing the Olympics due to Covid was understandably hard but putting it into perspective, Lowe was focused on surviving.

“I honestly thought I was going to die. This is not something that is comparable to the flu,” she says. “This is something that is actually ripping people away from their families, and my white blood cell count was still extremely compromised from the chemotherapy. It’s a miracle, in my opinion, that I was able to fight off Covid and survive it.”

She now uses her platform to talk about her resilience through both.

“I really got pushed into this motivational and inspirational speaking realm and my goal is to continue to raise awareness about breast cancer but also inspire with my journey through athletics,” says Lowe, who set the US high jump record of 2.05m in 2010. “You would think because of the pandemic that it would get quieter, but it has been the exact opposite! So, I have been doing a lot of virtual events, I do them every single day now, and it’s great for me because I really feel like the work that I am doing makes a difference.

(© Chaunte Lowe)

“It’s not what I would have chosen for myself, obviously you don’t want to be the spokesperson for breast cancer. However, being put in this situation and experiencing it first-hand allowed me to put myself in the place of other women or men who may experience it because they have it themselves or a loved one has it and I feel like lending my voice kind of helps empower them and so I am willing to do that at any cost.

“I partnered with organisations like the American Cancer Society, Komen and Lilly, because they are giving me the opportunity to talk to legislators and those that make the laws and the recommendations and share my story,” she adds. “Because what I personally want is 18-year-olds getting breast ultrasounds. With mammograms, the breast tissue is usually a little bit too dense and so you can’t see things until you are about 40. But those ultrasounds can and so I want to see that changed because I was sitting in chemotherapy at Stage 1, yet there was a girl who was 23 at Stage 3 being treated right next to me. The more research I did the more I was understanding that women are being diagnosed younger and younger and we don’t know why but at the same time, right now, early detection is our best defence against it. So, we have to use what we have, and I feel like it’s my job, knowing this, to fight for that.

“I have been in a very blessed position to have this platform because of the gifts that I have been given as an athlete. I feel that it would almost be a waste of the gifts if I don’t use that platform for good and I feel an obligation to that because the sport of athletics has given me so much. It has allowed me an education, to be able to provide a home for my family and to even have the resources – I had my medical insurance because of athletics and to be able to treat and fight the disease, I feel like it is my responsibility.”

It is also because of a connection within the sport that she even started doing self breast checks at all. Jamaican sprinter Novlene Williams-Mills had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 and Lowe reached out after reading her story.

“Novlene was a great friend of mine, even before her own diagnosis,” Lowe explains. “I read about her diagnosis and I had the opportunity to be on a bus with her. I was like, ‘hey, what happened, and how did you know?’ Because I didn’t know how to do a self breast exam. I didn’t even know that I was supposed to be doing them regularly at that point. She talked to me about it and told me about her process and so I started doing them because of her.”

Next steps

While Covid denied Lowe the chance to go for her fifth Olympic team, she feels she achieved her aim of using it as a stage to share breast cancer awareness through her link with Eli Lilly.

“Eli Lilly supported me going towards that fifth Olympics but for them it was more about giving me their platform to share my story,” she says. “When I watched the Olympic Games, during the opening ceremonies my video popped up. My kids were like, ‘Mommy, you made it!’ It was so beautiful because that was the goal. Realistically, I wasn’t going to make medals at this Games, I just wanted to get there and for them to lend their platform, they made that come true – I was there. That commercial ran over and over and I was there and people who were able to see my face could remember the story and maybe remember to get checked.”

Chaunte Lowe with her children, who were inspired by watching the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with her (© Chaunte Lowe)

She also intends to be there when the World Athletics Championships take place on home soil in Oregon next year.

“It is a huge target,” she smiles. “For the world that hasn’t been able to experience the crowd of Eugene, Oregon, you are going to love it. It is tremendous.

“My goal is to get on that track. I’ve only seen it on TV and I want to get on that track! I started training for real this week and I was surprised; I retained a lot of what I did last year, so I am not starting from zero. It was the first time since Covid hit that my heart wasn’t hurting and my lungs weren’t hurting. So I was like, yes! We’re good!”

And one thing is for sure: whatever happens on the track, Lowe will continue to aim high for breast cancer awareness.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics