Coker Honors Katelyn Cross as Honorary Captain

On Tuesday evening, Coker University field hockey recognized Katelyn Cross, who works with Creative Dining Services in the DeLoach Center, as the Honorary Captain for the Pink Out Game in support of Breast Cancer Awareness.

Katelyn was diagnosed with breast cancer in May of 2024, just before her 30th birthday. She underwent a double mastectomy, 16 rounds of chemotherapy, and five weeks of radiation treatments. With the love and support of her family and doctors, she never gave up—and today, she proudly stands here cancer free.

This is Katelyn story in her own words:

"My name is Katelyn Cross. I'm 31 years old and a breast cancer survivor. In May of 2024, less than a month before my 30th birthday, I found a lump in my right breast. After having a mammogram, I was referred to a surgeon who then performed a biopsy. I wasn't too concerned about the results at the time because of my age and I never thought cancer could happen to me.  After the biopsy, the surgeon even said it didn't look like cancer. So, when I saw him the following week for the results, I felt like my world stopped. Not only was it cancer, but there was a possibility that it had spread to my lymph nodes. The next few weeks were a blur, as I changed surgeons, saw an oncologist, and had to make a lot of difficult decisions. On July 15th, 2024, I had a double mastectomy in hopes that I would avoid having to undergo further treatment and never have breast cancer again. Unfortunately, the cancer had started to spread to my lymph nodes meaning I would need further treatment. I ended up having a total of 16 chemo treatments. The first 4 treatments were done two weeks apart because they were so strong. This chemo is nicknamed the Red Devil for a good reason. After the first treatment, I was so sick I could hardly keep my head up. After the second treatment, all my hair fell out and I was so weak, I just wanted to sleep all the time. After that, I started weekly chemo treatments for 12 weeks. My last chemo was on New Years Eve, 2024. In February 2025 I started radiation treatments – 5 days a week for 5 weeks. There were many times during all of this that I wanted to stop the treatments and give up, but my mother and oncologist kept pushing me to finish… I am glad I did because today I am working full time and getting on with the next chapter of my life —cancer free. "