KANSAS CITY, Mo. — To know Cynthia Newsome is to love Cynthia Newsome.
Here at KSHB 41, we admire her courage and strength as she goes through a new fight in her breast cancer journey.
"Many people know that I've been through this breast cancer journey since 2011," Cynthia said. "I was diagnosed with metastatic a couple of years ago, and just this last week, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor, so the breast cancer tumor had metastasized to my brain."
Cynthia said what felt like a headache was actually a two-inch tumor behind her left ear.
"It's interesting because we don't like pain at all, but pain can be a true sign that something's wrong," she said. "I had major, major headaches, very, very bad headaches, especially after my chemotherapy treatments."
Cynthia said that's when her husband, Ed, stepped in.
"I said, 'Your head's hurting for a reason ... so we need to get in there and get a brain MRI done,'" he said. "So we went in, and we just said to the nurse, 'She's got headaches, and we're insisting on a brain MRI.' And that's when that process started. And we ended up admitted in the hospital that same day, and the MRI happened late that night. We found the results the next morning."
Cynthia will now go through whole brain radiation therapy, which will consist of 10 back-to-back treatments.
"We will continue [to] believe and walk in faith," Cynthia said. "That's who we are."
After hearing the news, Cynthia said she wasn't fearful.
"There was a peace," she said. "It was like, 'Ah, so now we know. Now we've identified what's wrong. Okay, what's the treatment? What are we going to do now? What are the options?" Cynthia said. "And we had different people come in and give us different consults and different options, and we chose the whole brain radiation therapy."
Ed also said he was ready to tackle the diagnosis.
"Because fear basically means false evidence that appears to be real, but we take whatever the diagnosis is, and we walk in that, we work in that and we expect it to come out on top," Ed said.
When you see Cynthia walk through this journey, you will always see Ed walking alongside her.
"It's everything. It's true love. It's the love of God. It's the love whether you're lovely or you're not lovely. He still loves me, and he's here for me," Cynthia said. "And one of the most powerful things I remember, when I originally just had breast cancer and I said, 'What if it comes back?' ... because that's a reality, that's a truth. I mean, we're not trying to pretend that reality doesn't exist. It's a possibility, and I said, 'What if the cancer comes back?' And he said, 'I'm not going anywhere, I'm not going anywhere.' And he's been here, and it's been beautiful and hard, and there's trying times, there's quiet times and prayerful times. I just thank God for my husband."
Ed wants to remind everyone to get checkups often and speak up if something doesn't feel right.
"I think it's necessary that we all stay in touch with our bodies, that we get our medical treatments down, keep our appointments, stay in touch with our body, and those things that we can do, like eat well and sleep well; there's a lot that we can do for ourselves," Ed said. "That's why we're doing what we're doing on TV, and that's why we've done it for 14 years, actually. And people are seeing that and say, 'Because I saw your segment on TV, I've taken greater steps to take care of myself.'"
VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Rae Daniel
Whether in church or at KSHB 41, Cynthia and Ed said they're ready for what the journey brings.
"We're not afraid," Ed said. "We're here for the long haul."
Cynthia said there's power in sharing her story.
"I like sharing my story because there's so many other people who are going through what I'm going through as well, and it's comforting and encouraging; I hope I'm inspiring them," Cynthia said. " We are walking this walk together, and it's a faith walk. There's no guarantees."
The Kansas City community and KSHB 41 are walking alongside her, too.
"It's really humbling for people to take their personal time and pray for me, and they ... maybe never met me," Cynthia said. "They don't know who I am, but they know what I'm going through, and they care. And so if we can create that caring community all over Kansas City, and just realize you don't know what somebody's maybe going through, but think about it and just say a prayer for them."
While she's getting treatment, Cynthia is stepping away from work to get better. However, her nonprofit, Awesome Ambitions, is still going strong. The organization provides various programming and resources for teenage girls in underserved communities in the greater metro area.
The Awesome Ambitions Purse-onality event is set for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on July 26 at the Zhou Brothers Art Center, 1801 E. 18th St., KCMO, 64108.
Cynthia says she hopes to make a full recovery just in time to attend and host the event.
For anyone looking to send words of encouragement to Cynthia, you can email her at cynthia.newsome@kshb.com.
—
