[00:00:00] Adam Walker: From Susan G Komen, this is Real Pink, A podcast exploring real stories, struggles, and triumphs related to breast cancer. We’re taking the conversation from the doctor’s office to your living room.
[00:00:17] Welcome to the Komen Health Equity Revolution podcast series on Real Pink. I’m your host, Adam Walker. Each month in this series, we bring together patients, community partners, healthcare providers, researchers, and advocates to talk about real challenges in real solutions driving the health equity revolution. In this episode as we wrap up the year, we’re celebrating the beating heart of Komens mission, the patient care Center.
[00:00:43] If you’ve ever wondered what happens at the other end of the Breast Care helpline, this episode is for you. Joining me are two extraordinary patient navigators. Marcela Orozco, who supports many of our Spanish speaking patients across the country, and Ladoya Mayfield, who works with countless people in Houston communities facing some of the highest breast cancer disparities.
[00:01:05] Together, they’re bringing us the PCCs greatest impact stories of the year. Stories that show how compassion, cultural understanding, and connection can change everything. So Marcela and Ladoya, welcome to the show.
[00:01:20] Marcela Orozco: Thank you for having us, Adam.
[00:01:22] Ladoya Mayfield: Thank you, Adam.
[00:01:24] Adam Walker: I’m very excited to have you both on the show.
[00:01:26] I love talking to patient navigators because I love the role that you play and how you’re able to help people. So you sit at the most human vulnerable part of this work, answering a call when someone is scared or overwhelmed or unsure of where to turn. So I guess I want to ask each of you, what does that responsibility mean to you personally?
[00:01:48] Marcela, let’s start with you.
[00:01:51] Marcela Orozco: Yeah, so when I answer the phone, Adam, I like to remind myself that this might be the hardest call that a patient makes, right? So in that moment, I like to help patients feel understood and heard. They have fear of not being understood. They have the fear of not having the right words.
[00:02:11] They have fear of navigating a system that can feel intimidating. And all of this is happening while maybe they have no family close. Their family’s far away in another country. So they have the added fear of being alone. Alone, not being understood. So for me, I take that responsibility with great honor and it is a privilege for me to be able to do that every day as a Komen Navigator.
[00:02:38] Adam Walker: Alright, Ladoya. So to you, what does that responsibility mean to you personally?
[00:02:43] Ladoya Mayfield: Sure, Adam, it’s a responsibility that I do not take lightly. I’m there when someone is scared, overwhelmed, and uncertain. My role goes beyond providing just information, but it’s about offering emotional support. When they call, I try to help them feel heard, validated, and less alone in one of their most vulnerable times in their life.
[00:03:06] My job is to guide them through fear, confusion giving them clarity and confidence while connecting them to resources that they need. It’s truly an honor to be a calming presence and a trusted point of contact throughout their journey.
[00:03:20] Adam Walker: Alright, so my next two questions are for Marcela. So so Marcela, many colleges that you support are navigating breast health in Spanish often with fewer resources or more barriers.
[00:03:30] Can you share one of the most impactful stories from this year where language support changed someone’s experience?
[00:03:39] Marcela Orozco: Yes. So one story that really stayed with me this year was about a woman from Virginia. She shared with me that she works for a moving company and she had to make a trip to Florida.
[00:03:52] While she was in Florida, she noticed that there was a mobile mammogram bus offering free mammograms and ultrasounds. So since she’s uninsured, she decided to take advantage of that opportunity and get tested. So to her shock, her screenings showed that she had breast cancer and they told her she needed further testing.
[00:04:14] So she went back home. She kept this inside for weeks. She was terrified, she was unsure of what to do with no primary care doctor, and she felt like she had nowhere to turn. She feared, you know, of the being dismissed. She feared that she didn’t speak the same language. So she just kept that in to herself for many weeks until a friend finally told her about Komen, and that’s when she decided to reach out to our PCC program.
[00:04:43] The moment that I called her and spoke to her in Spanish, she broke down in tears, and she told me that she was not crying at that moment because of her results. She was crying because crying for the first time since she heard the word cancer, she felt understood. And that to this day makes me very emotional.
[00:05:05] You know, after a few calls looking for resources trying to connect her with the right person that could help her and guide her in person where she was in Virginia. I walked with her step by step. We found her a primary care doctor. I connected her with a social worker that spoke Spanish, so she was able to get assistance applying for sliding scale and then getting an appointment with a primary care doctor when I called her to follow up,
[00:05:37] she said, I don’t know how you did all of this so quickly, but I am so grateful. And in that moment I was reminded of how powerful language access really is. It doesn’t just help someone get care. It restores their confidence. It restores their dignity and their sense that they do deserve support.
[00:06:00] Adam Walker: I love that. That’s beautiful. Thank you for sharing that story. And what do you notice most about the fears or the questions that Spanish speaking callers bring, and how do you help them feel seen and supported?
[00:06:13] Marcela Orozco: I think most of them have a fear of not just misunderstanding because there is a language barrier.
[00:06:21] They have a fear of being misunderstood. They feel like anywhere they go they don’t know if there’s going to be an interpreter. They don’t know if they’re going to receive email information in English. And then they don’t, they’re not going to understand it. And this is part of why the Komen Patient Navigation program is so wonderful.
[00:06:41] because we not only communicate verbally in Spanish, but we provide education and emails to these patients in their language as well. I feel like receiving all of this information in their own language really helps patients feel understood and it empowers them to take the next steps. You know, they also worry about things like cost, about immigration status about asking the wrong questions.
[00:07:09] And often they’re carrying all this fear alone because they don’t want to worry their families. So again, the first thing I like to do is really slow everything down. Talk to them in Spanish, let them know that there is no judgment here. I’m here to support you. I’m here to listen. And just kind of gain their trust and let them ask questions and let me know what resources they need.
[00:07:33] Sometimes their biggest fear isn’t the breast symptom itself. It’s the fear of navigating a system without anyone guiding them.
[00:07:42] Adam Walker: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean the fear of the unknown is is pretty, pretty serious, pretty profound. So Ladoya as someone navigating patients in Houston where Black women face some of the highest mortality rates, what’s one moment or story from this year that really stayed with you?
[00:08:00] Ladoya Mayfield: Sure. So there’s one story that really stuck with me this year. I was navigating an African American woman who was 37 years old diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, and she was a single mom of three living on a fixed income. I’m 38, right. So I could only imagine the weight that she must be carrying, having to go through treatment and being a mom because it is a full-time job.
[00:08:30] That’s right. That’s right. And facing chemo along while caring for her three children. So she came to me with the needs of needing help with utilities, rent, and food. So as a patient navigator, my job is to look for organizations that will help the patient get the help that they need. So I was able to secure $3,000 in rental assistance to help with her rent, $350 for utility assistance and $300 and grocery assistance for her.
[00:09:02] So at the end when it was time to end her enrollment, the patient told me Thank you for everything. People always promise something and never come through. So those words stuck with me because it really reminded me why the work that we do matters so deeply. Sometimes the greatest impact that we have is simply showing up and following through, and listening and lightening someone else’s load when their world feels invariably heavy.
[00:09:34] Adam Walker: I love that some of the greatest impact is just showing up. Yeah. You’re a hundred percent right. I love that. That’s so great. And Ladoya, like what does culturally grounded navigation look like for you? How do you build trust, especially with someone especially when someone comes in with medical mistrust or past negative experiences.
[00:09:56] Ladoya Mayfield: Culturally grounded navigation means truly seeing and honoring the whole person from their backgrounds, their fears, and their experiences that shape how they view the healthcare system. Trust with me begins by listening. I invite the patients to share their stories. In their own words, their, and I always try to validate their concerns especially when it’s around carrying mistrust or they have faced negative encounters in the past.
[00:10:26] So for me, I stay transparent, consistent, and committed to following through on every promise that I make. That reliability helps for the patient to build that trust with that may have been damaged long before they came to me. So it’s all about meeting people where they are respecting their lived experiences and creating a safe place where they feel heard and understood and supported.
[00:10:51] Adam Walker: I love that. I love that. All right, so this question’s for both of you. So, like you, you know, you each to answer, so many people don’t realize how complicated breast cancer can be with, you know, finances, transportation, treatment, delays, fear, childcare. What’s one barrier you helped someone overcome that illustrates why Komens PCC is such a lifeline?
[00:11:17] Marcela Orozco: So one story that really sticks with me is about a Hispanic patient who was completely drowning in medical bills after her surgery. She says she felt overwhelmed. She didn’t know what to do, where to start to try to even pay her bills. She was worried that she might have to delay follow up care.
[00:11:41] Because she had so many bills and she’s not able to pay. So she wasn’t sure if it would even continue her follow-up care because of that. Right. So due to the language barrier, we set up several, three-way calls and we went through a very detailed list of bills where she was sharing with me the phone numbers, the amount of the bills.
[00:12:05] And what we did is we called these different different healthcare facilities and we asked them about financial assistance. I was on the phone just kind of to translate what she was saying to them because she wasn’t even sure what to ask. So on those calls, we walked through every bill together.
[00:12:25] We went ahead and submitted applications for assistance right then and there. And to our surprise, or to her surprise, she qualified for quite a bit of financial assistance at the different locations places like LabCorp, her healthcare center. So she was very relieved to see that she, she went from a huge bill to almost zero from all these places.
[00:12:52] So now she can take the time to focus on her treatment. She didn’t have to worry about how she was going to pay and getting behind with all these payments. So that’s exactly why Komens PCC is such a lifeline. It’s about more than just money. It’s about helping patients stay on track with their treatments when everything feels impossible for them.
[00:13:13] Adam Walker: I love that. And Ladoya, how about you? What’s a barrier you helped someone overcome?
[00:13:18] Ladoya Mayfield: Sure. So one barrier was transportation for a patient that lived in Harris County. And she was getting ready to start her radiation treatment, but she had pretty much ran out of money paying friends and family to take her to a chemo appointment.
[00:13:36] So she came to me and she was like, look, I’m living on a fixed income. I really don’t like asking people to help me, but you know, I found your number. So I called you guys and can you help me? And so the first thing that came to mind is that our Komen Financial Assistance program was open, so we were able to get her approved for the $500.
[00:13:56] And then I also. I got her a $50 gas card. And the American Cancer Society has a transportation program that will arrange for free rides for patients that are going through active treatment to get to their treatment. So we were able to get her approved for all of that good stuff. And at the end of her journey, she literally cried and said, Ladoya, I didn’t even know that this was possible, but thank you for all of your help.
[00:14:23] And so she wrote a an email to our helpline email address, and she was like, I hope this gets you a raise because you’ve been such a wonderful blessing to me and you are a lifeline. And so I’m so thankful for Komen’s PCC services because, you know, we care. We want, we want to help, we want to be there for you.
[00:14:42] So just give us a call and we’re there for you.
[00:14:47] Adam Walker: Oh, I love that. So beautiful. So Ladoya, another question for you from your vantage point, what inequities did you see most this year and how is the PCC helping to bridge those gaps?
[00:15:04] Ladoya Mayfield: So some of the inequities that I saw this year were, individuals struggling to meet basic needs such as paying rent, keeping up with utilities, or putting food on the table, all while trying to stay on track with ke with their treatments. I also saw how systematic barriers, such as transportation challenges and past negative experiences with healthcare disproportionately affected Black people.
[00:15:31] So the PCC helps by bridging those gaps by both medical and practical. So we provide assistance through the financial assistance our Komen financial assistance program through other organizations that provide transportation, financial assistance, grocery support all while they’re in active treatment.
[00:15:52] So at the same time, we don’t just provide, you know, resources to organizations. We also provide guidance on education. Emotional support. Second, second opinions. You know, when they come to us and they like, they’re like. Oh, Ladoya. I had this happen to me. Do you know what I should do next? And I always educate a patient on how important it’s, if you don’t feel like you know that doctor’s right foot for you, you can always go and get a second opinion for another one.
[00:16:20] If you don’t like the treatment that you’re, you know treatment options that you’re receiving. You have the right as an individual to get a second opinion. So you know, by meeting patients where they are and addressing the real world obstacles, that Make care difficult. The PCC ensures that people don’t just receive treatment, they receive support that they need to get through it.
[00:16:43] Adam Walker: Ah, yeah. They don’t just receive treatment. They receive support. I love that. So this question’s for both of you. What’s something you wish Every caller, regardless of background, understood about their right to care questions and support.
[00:16:59] Marcela Orozco: So I’ll go first. I wish that every caller knew that they are valued that they have the right to care and that it is okay to ask questions.
[00:17:09] I feel like they need to understand that no matter their background, no matter what language they speak everyone deserves clear information, deserves support and respect when it comes to their treatment. I wish they understood that asking questions is not being difficult. Sometimes as a Latino community we tend to think that if I ask too many questions, they’re going to get upset with me.
[00:17:36] And I always tell my patients that asking questions is not being difficult, it’s advocating for yourself. And I feel like every patient has a right to do that.
[00:17:46] Adam Walker: That’s right. How about you Ladoya?
[00:17:49] Ladoya Mayfield: I would want them to know that everybody at some point in their life needs help. So. It’s okay. You absolutely do deserve the help.
[00:17:59] Right? And that calling the PCC care line helpline isn’t a burden. It’s a step towards clarity, support, and relief. And you don’t have to face this alone. We have a lot of navigators that are willing to be here to support you throughout your journey. So there’s no question too small or no fear, too big to share. The PCC is definitely here to listen, guide and connect you to resources that can make a real life difference.
[00:18:27] So you deserve the care and support and someone who is willing to follow through. And you’ll definitely get that with PCC services or center.
[00:18:39] Adam Walker: That’s right. That’s right. That’s right. So Marcela, what gives you hope when you think about the communities that you serve, especially those that are facing some of the steepest barriers.
[00:18:50] Marcela Orozco: So I believe that what gives me hope is the incredible strength and resilience I see every day from the communities that we serve, especially those at that are facing more barriers. Maybe because of the language gap even when people are dealing with the language gap. Financial pressures, fear of the system.
[00:19:12] Pain. They still show up, right? They still fight for answers. They still care for their families even when they’re going through so much and feeling so overwhelmed. So what inspires me the most is that just with the little support, they can get the confidence that they need to take the next steps.
[00:19:35] You can see them realize that they do have a voice and that they do deserve care. And the transformation, watching them go from overwhelmed to empowered is really what gives me hope every day.
[00:19:48] Adam Walker: I love that.
[00:19:49] I love that. All right, last question for both of you. If you could speak directly to someone who’s afraid to call someone that’s scrolling through Komens website wondering whether they deserve help, what would you want them to know?
[00:20:04] Ladoya. Let’s start with you.
[00:20:06] Ladoya Mayfield: I wish every caller understood that they have the right to be informed the right to ask questions and the right to receive the care without feeling rushed, dismissed, or judged. No matter background, income or circumstances, you do deserve clear explanations emotional support and access to resources that can help you through your diagnosis, treatment, or screening.
[00:20:31] It’s okay to advocate for yourself, so if something doesn’t seem right, speak up, ask for help. And expect to be respected from every part of the healthcare system. You are not a burden. Your voice does matter. Your concerns matter, and that you do deserve quality, care and support every step of the way.
[00:20:53] Adam Walker: That’s right. I love that. Marcela.
[00:20:56] Marcela Orozco: For me, I would want them to hear this. You are worthy of care and support. No matter your background, no matter what language you speak, no matter your culture, you are just one call away from getting maybe the help that you need. Everyone who reaches out deserves respect and support and they deserve to be heard.
[00:21:20] They deserve to understand their treatment. And making that call doesn’t mean that you have to face everything at once. It means that you’re going to take one day at a time. Gain confidence, feel more in control, and you feel supported. I would like them to know and understand that you are not alone and that help is here for them.
[00:21:44] Adam Walker: That’s beautiful. I love that. Well, Marcela, Ladoya, you are amazing. I mean, just amazing. You do incredible important work that helps so many people. And I just, I want to thank you for sharing. Your stories with us today, you remind us that Komens mission isn’t just about research, statistics or programs, it’s about people.
[00:22:08] It’s about making sure that anyone facing breast cancer in any language, in any community, under any circumstances, has someone in their corner and I know you’re always in their corner. So thank you both for joining us on the show today. For our listeners, if you or someone you love need support navigating breast cancer from emotional support to help finding local resources or financial assistance, Komens Patient Care Center is here to help.
[00:22:36] Call 1 8 7 7- Go- Komen or visit komen.org/patient care center. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Komen Health Equity Revolution Series. We’ll keep bringing you conversations that shine a light on the barriers to care and the people directly affected by them and working to break them down so that everyone has a chance for better breast health.
[00:22:59] Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time on Real Pink.
[00:23:03] Thanks for listening to Real Pink, a weekly podcast by Susan G Komen. For more episodes, visit real pink.Komen.org. And for more on breast cancer, visit Komen.org. Make sure to check out at Susan G Komen on social media. I’m your host, Adam. You can find me on Twitter at AJ Walker or on my blog adam j walker.com.