Young Teacher Survives Rare Cancer, Founds Non-Profit
A classroom veteran with 12 years of teaching experience, Bailey Wolfe calls teaching elementary math and reading “the best job ever.” Though Covid-19 has turned classroom norms upside down, Bailey is just grateful to be back at the blackboard. Less than a year ago, she was fighting for her life in a grueling battle against ovarian cancer.
Bailey began experiencing ovulation pain, bloating, extreme exhaustion, and increased urination frequency in late 2018, but she shrugged these symptoms off and decided they must be normal consequences of leaving her 20s behind. When she wasn’t busy teaching, 33-year-old Bailey was usually practicing yoga, hiking, or enjoying a healthy meal with her husband and 2 sons. At her annual health insurance screening in March 2019, Bailey was told by the screener that she was “the healthiest person who’d come in all day.” Just 5 days later, at an appointment Bailey had made as a simple matter of precaution, a transvaginal ultrasound would show that a substantial mass was growing in Bailey’s ovaries. Bailey realized right away that this was serious. She could see it in the eyes of the worried ultrasound tech, who was the parent of a former student. Bailey’s gynecologist said, “Bailey, I don’t know what you had planned for this week, but there’s a good chance you’ll be in surgery within the next couple of days.”
The following morning, Bailey and her husband Nathan made the 2-hour drive to Nashville from their hometown of Paducah, Kentucky. Bailey met that day with gynecological oncologist Dr. Jason Barnett of Ascension Medical Group. On the second day, Bailey was in surgery at Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown for more than 8 hours. When she woke up, she asked the question burning inside her head: “Is it cancer?” A surgical biopsy confirmed that Bailey had stage III ovarian cancer.
“For the first week or so, I felt gloom and doom. I was sure I would die,” recalls Bailey. “But then I decided that I had to push forward for my husband and my boys. I gathered my thoughts and feelings and I decided to adopt the mindset I needed to beat the beast.” Two weeks after her surgery, Bailey and Dr. Barnett met to develop a plan of attack that included 6 rounds of chemo. Over the following months, Bailey was devastated by the loss of her hair and was disappointed that she was too weak to teach or continue the hikes she loved. But Bailey visited her second graders religiously twice per week to read them stories and she pushed herself to exercise gently whenever she could. On August 5, 2019, Bailey completed her last round of chemo.
Though the following months were filled with celebration that her cancer was in remission, Bailey emphasises that her recovery period brought unexpected difficulties of its own. She was thrilled to return to the classroom after Labor Day Weekend, but suffered a serious setback during fall break that resulted in a surprise hospital visit during a beach vacation with her family.
Today, Bailey credits her health to the Ascension Saint Thomas care team that “spoiled her” and the endless support of her family and friends. She is back to practicing yoga, enjoying hikes, and passing down a love of reading and math to her second-grade classroom. Bailey partnered with 2 other women affected by ovarian cancer to create STAAR Ovarian Cancer Foundation, the first non-profit in the US to exclusively raise funds for Bailey’s rare form of ovarian cancer. STAAR stands for survive, thrive, advocate, and advance research. Learn more at this link.
