About PRG | BOARD MEMBERS
From Left to Right
- Banita Bailey - Treasurer
- Pattie Noel - Assitant Treasurer
- Tracie Metzger - Executive Director Co-Founder
- Liz Kelly - Secretary
- Wendy Coates - Membership Director
- Jocelyn Banks - Vice President (not pictured)
- Andrea Bashor - Outreach and Education Coordinator (not pictured)
Tracie Metzger was 30 years old when she was diagnosed and had two children ages three and eleven months. She found the lump during a self-breast-exam when her daughter stopped nursing. After visits to the OB/GYN and breast surgeon, they told her it was probably a clogged milk duct or a fibroadenoma. She was told to wait a few months to see if it went away. She wasn’t comfortable with that and insisted on surgery. When the lump was removed, it was malignant. Stage I Breast Cancer, September 8th, 2000.
Tracie was recently named the 2010 Pink Power Super Mom.
I am a survivor of 7 years and 3 years from each time I’ve been diagnosed. I joined PRG in 2002 as I faced my first diagnosis of Breast Cancer at a meager 24 years of age. Although I lived in Dayton, OH at the time I was inspired by the women who came forward to lend a helping hand. Today these women make up many of my best friends, and I know I could not have found such a great support system if it weren’t for PRG. In 2006 I experienced the rare post-mastectomy local recurrence, and the hardships that came along with enduring chemotherapy, radiation, and finding myself a newly single mother of a very energetic 3 year old. I absolutely could not have gotten through this alone… I fortunately have relocated back to Cincinnati, and I am so excited to be joining PRG’s leadership and look forward to helping this great organization continue to bridge the gap in cancer support and care for young women all across the nation.
When I’m not working with PRG, I lead the Springdale Girl Scouts Daisy Troop for my two 6yr-old daughters, and I am a consumer reviewer for the Department of Defense’s Breast Cancer Research Program. Research is very near and dear to my heart and I believe that WE WILL find the cure in the next decade. Prior to joining PRG as Vice President I am a co-founder of Sisters Network Cincinnati, Sisters Network Dayton, and the Breast Cancer Fund of Ohio (Ohio’s Pink Ribbon License Plate). Please feel free to email me at any time if you have any questions or comments for me. Thanks So Much!
Banita Bailey was 29 years old when she was first diagnosed and her only daughter was three years old. She found her lump during a self-breast exam but did not get diagnosed for over one year. After her needle biopsy confirmed the tumor was malignant, she had a lumpectomy on March 30, 1998 followed by chemotherapy and radiation treatments. At the age 36, Banita decided to have prophylactic bilateral mastectomy with breast reconstruction on January 25, 2005. After the mastectomy, she was surprised to receive a second breast cancer diagnosis. Stage II Breast Cancer, March 30, 1998. Stage 0, Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), January 25, 2005.
Pattie Noel was 35 years old when diagnosed with Stage 2A breast cancer; married with 2 grown step-children. She found the lump during a breast self-exam and wasn’t treated for another 6 months after the mammogram didn’t show anything and was told it was probably nothing since she was so young. The lumpectomy could not produce clean margins so she had a mastectomy with a tram flap reconstruction followed by chemo. On her annual follow-up exam with her surgeon 3 years later he felt a suspicious lump in the lymph node area on the same side as the original cancer. The lump was removed within a few days and was malignant. Another round of a different kind of chemo treatments followed along with radiation this time all started the same day. The next year she joined Pink Ribbon Girls and a few years later began the monthly Women of Hope Cancer Prayer Group along with another PRG member. In March 2008, six years after her recurrence, she was diagnosed with metastatic Stage 4 breast cancer and is successfully fighting with the help of integrative cancer care at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Philadelphia.
Liz Kelly was 34 years when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Coming from a large family with three older sisters the news come as a real shock since breast cancer did not run in her family. Liz discovered her lump while taking a shower after her nightly workout. She had the lump removed and found out that it was malignant on February 23, 2003. She then had a lumpectomy, preceded by six rounds of chemo and thirty days of radiation treatments. She has been cancer free for six years and counting.
