When 12-year-old James Henault says his favorite color is pink, sometimes kids will start to make fun of him until he explains that his mom, Jennie, is a breast cancer survivor. Then, he becomes a little hero with a big heart.

Pink also just happens to be the trendy color this month because of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Everyone, from football players to firefighters, is sporting pink.

Breast cancer survivor Jennie Henault poses with a pink fire truck in August 2014 in Lawrence.

Jennie Henault enjoyed a Royals game with her family. From left: James, Jennie, Justin and her husband, Eddie.

Jennie Henault, director of administrative services at the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, was diagnosed with breast cancer when James was 6 years old and her other son, Justin, was 3.

Jennie said Justin was too young to understand the cancer, but James had questions and concerns. She was glad that Lawrence Memorial offered a support group for kids, and James participated in it for about a year. “That was really good for him because he was trying to understand,” she said.

Jennie’s experience began when she detected a lump on her breast, but she didn’t think — or maybe want to believe — it was cancerous although her great-grandmother had a double mastectomy and a great-aunt had breast cancer. That’s because her cousin had a lump that ended up being a cyst. Jennie thought that’s probably what it is, but it kept getting bigger and bigger.

Four months later at her annual wellness exam, she told her doctor about it, which led to a mammogram that didn’t detect the cancer. She then saw Dr. Mark Praeger, her surgeon who has since retired. He used an ultrasound, which found the cancer right away. Then, Jennie had a biopsy that confirmed it. She was diagnosed in March 2010 with Stage 2 cancer at age 38.

The next week, she had a lumpectomy. That was followed by chemotherapy treatments from March until August, and then came the radiation treatments. She had those a couple times a week for about six weeks.

During the treatments, she remembers being tired and sleeping a lot. She said radiation was difficult because it burned and her skin became really sensitive. She worked quite a bit during her treatments, but she said work helped keep her mind off the cancer. “I really do believe part of it is about your attitude, so if you’re kind of trying to keep yourself motivated and positive that helps,” she said.

During the chemotherapy treatments, Jennie said, her head started to hurt and after visiting with a breast cancer survivor, she decided to shave her head before her hair started to fall out so it wouldn’t be so dramatic. She joked that she lost her ’80s hairdo. Jennie said she wore scarves for a while and then opted to sport a wig.

“It wasn’t too bad, but you have to experiment because some fall off, especially if it’s windy,” she said, laughing.

At first her sons were uncomfortable seeing her without a wig, but they eventually got used to it. Her youngest son even liked to weigh in on her wigs. “He would say, ‘I don’t like that wig’ or ‘I do like that one.’ He was brutally honest sometimes,” Jennie said, laughing. She stopped wearing wigs a couple of months ago because her hair is growing back.

Jennie is taking a drug, Tamoxifen, which decreases her chances of developing the disease again.

She urges everyone to do self-breast exams in addition to other preventive measures, and to communicate with their health care provider. “If there’s any doubt in your mind, talk to your doctor. I was lucky that I didn’t have to do anything beyond what I did.”

— Karrey Britt is the communications coordinator for the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department. She can be reached at kbritt@ldchealth.org or 856-7362.