Dorothy: [00:00:00] Dinah McClymonds said she did everything she was supposed to and still was diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer. She describes herself as a little soldier doing her annual checkups, and once she was diagnosed, she did everything the doctors told her to do. But there comes a point when you just can’t do anymore.
She says her body was never the same after treatment. And when Dinah said this, I was taken back. I had never heard anyone talk about that before. Dinah has many friends and acquaintances who all had breast cancer, and she says every one of those had access to care, had great insurance, and received the very best in treatments.
She can’t imagine what it would be like to go through something like breast cancer without insurance. And that is one of the reasons why Dinah is so excited about being the chair of our March Everything Is Coming Up Roses Luncheon. She wants every woman insured or uninsured to have the care she needs. And this [00:01:00] is one Dinah is changing the world we live in and giving a chance to life possible for our uninsured women.
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Let’s Talk About Your Breast, a different kind of podcast presented to you by The Rose, a breast center of excellence, and a Texas treasure. You’re gonna hear frank discussions about tough topics, and you’re gonna learn why knowing about your breast could save your life.
So thank you so much, Dinah, coming and being with us today and sharing your story and for accepting this incredible role of being our chair for our [00:02:00] 2025 Everything’s Coming Up Roses Luncheon. And that is one of our best events, one of our events that has brought so many more people to The Rose and, and has raised so much money. Thank you for that.
Dinah: No, thank you. I’m very honored to be part of this and I have attended the luncheon many times, so I know, I know myself how, how, uh energizing it is for the women and the men in the room. It’s wonderful, wonderful event.
Dorothy: It has been such, such a, uh, blessing to us for sure. Now, I wanna know a little bit about Dinah. I, I don’t wanna know all your breast cancer stuff yet. I wanna know about you.
Dinah: Okay. Well, I’m a Texan. I was born and raised in Port Arthur, just 90 miles east of here, and my family uh, were long established in Port Arthur and I, silly me, thought I knew everybody in the whole state of Texas, [00:03:00] uh, when I was graduating from high school and decided to go off to college in Florida.
And that’s just the beginning of my away from Texas days, but as you can see, I’m back and my husband, I actually met my husband at the University of Oklahoma and we both ended up here in Houston as straight outta college, uh, with jobs. And then one year later we married at, we were very young in 1972. And, uh, his career took us, he was with Foley’s, many people probably remember Foley’s.
Dorothy: Oh yes. Of course.
Dinah: Department store. His career took us all over the country. We, uh, moved in and out of Houston three times and we lived in Memphis and Atlanta and Dallas. And we raised two children in those cities and we now [00:04:00] have three grandchildren and we’ve currently been in Houston for, this is the longest time I’ve been in Houston, 22 years. Um, and I guess this is the end. I’m not. I thought about going somewhere else and then it’s just too difficult. So yes, we’re still here. We’re gonna be here.
Dorothy: So in these last years that you’ve been in Houston, you have been very busy in volunteering.
Dinah: Mm-hmm.
Dorothy: Uh, for many different organizations. But tell us a little bit about being that community volunteer.
Dinah: Well, it, you know, I didn’t, I didn’t have an example in this, uh, my mother did some volunteer work, but I really didn’t know what this was. And when you become involved in organizations that have a project and event uh, a dedicated charity to support, [00:05:00] it was just natural for me to say, okay, I’ll participate and go along. And, uh, really most, 95% of what I have done has been related to my membership in Kappa Alpha Theta, which, um. Uh, started as a very, as a 20-year-old. I, when I first moved to Houston and I thought, well, now what do I do with myself? I was a school librarian and I thought, well, I have to have something to do outside of my job.
And I thought, well, I can go, I can go be with those nice Theta ladies, and they gave me the worst jobs to do, but I just was a little soldier and I did everything, like I was told, and I just kept, I kept on, I just kept on until finally I realized, uh, in an advanced stage that I could do more. Um, and I have chaired many [00:06:00] events and I have been president of the local chapter and I’ve served on the National Foundation Board, which was the pinnacle of my it, it my total theta experience, but it was also the biggest learning curve. I, I thought I knew so much. And I, I really did not. I learned so much by serving on that major board. Um, and it gave me a lot of confidence. Um, but, then I’ve also done other smaller things and I’ve chaired other luncheons. Uh, and so I know, I know kind of what I’m getting myself into here. Uh, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not gonna be a lot of work and also a lot of fun. I’m sure it’s gonna be fun.
Dorothy: Oh, oh, we are so delighted to have you because I mean, just think of all these years that you’ve been volunteering, you’ve raised thousands and thousands of dollars.
Dinah: Millions, yes.
Dorothy: [00:07:00] Millions, yes.
Dinah: Oh, not by myself.
Dorothy: Oh my gosh.
Dinah: But not by myself. I’ll be honest and tell you it’s not, it’s not a one person job, but, um, and. Dorothy, I had no previous skill in doing any of this. I had never had a class in college that talked about fundraising or nonprofits or any of that. I’m a librarian.
I’m, I mean, I have absolutely no experience doing this. Um, but here’s what happened. My mother used to, I have a twin sister, an identical twin. She used to just literally push us into the, into the room and say, go speak to the ladies. And that was my, I thought back, this is how I learned to do this. And people say, how do you, how did you manage to raise all that [00:08:00] money? And I said, that simple answer is you just be as nice as you possibly can be, and you never have to ask.
Dorothy: Wow. That is true. Especially when you have a great cause. Well, and you’ve had many great causes.
Dinah: That’s it. Yes. If, if you believe in what it is you’re supporting, then you really never have to press anybody to give it it. They will figure it out. And, um, it, it’s, um, it’s kind of magical in a way because I, I certainly had nobody taught me how to do this.
Dorothy: You know, I don’t think many people realize how much organization it takes to put together some of these things, or how many different details there are. That you just have to be sure that they’re there and you go to a luncheon and everything’s there, and. It’s done.
Dinah: But there’s a lot of, well, as an, as an attendee, it’s nothing more than just sitting and having a nice time with the right like-minded people and enjoying [00:09:00] a meal and hearing a speaker and maybe thinking, oh wow, that’s, you know, they’re doing something really great. I should be, I should be more involved, or I should help more. Or I’m, I need to think about this in a serious way. Um, that’s what I think a luncheon is about, it’s beyond just enjoying the day.
Dorothy: Right.
Dinah: It’s what do you get, what do you get from it? When you go, do you walk out of there and say, wow, I, I learned a lot. Or these people are doing hard work and they’re doing a really good job of it. Um, and of course there are organi— organizations all over this city who do great things and it’s hard to do, to be a part of every single one. So then you end up choosinng. Choosing the ones that mean the most to you. Yeah.
Dorothy: Right. And of course, because of your own breast cancer experience you certainly know what a woman’s gonna go through that we’re [00:10:00] helping and especially a woman who might not have had the, the advantages or the access to care that, that you had.
Dinah: Well, and that was, I thought about that before I came here to date. It — for the most part, every single person I know who has had breast cancer, has had a lifetime of great medical care in other parts of her or his life, and never questioned the ability to be treated for a serious disease like breast cancer. You know, just thinking, oh well. I’ll just go to the doctor and I’ll go through some sort of treatment and it’ll be fixed.
Everybody I know has had that experience. I don’t know those women who can’t find a doctor or have no money to pay for a doctor or who are so far along in their breast cancer that [00:11:00] there’s very little that can be done for them. I, I don’t personally know those people. But there’re probably way more of those women out there than there are women like me and like the people I know who have had breast cancer and survived.
Dorothy: Right.
Dinah: I will tell you, I do not know one woman who has died of breast cancer.
Dorothy: And I know out of all that, you know.
Dinah: Out of all the women I know, not one has died. And that’s what I thought when I got it. Well, okay. I’ll be just like them. And so far I’m right.
Dorothy: Alright. Tell me, how long ago was this?
Dinah: Uh, 20, I got my diagnosis right before Christmas in 2016. And, um. Uh, the holidays were upon us and I actually had a vacation planned in January, um, a short vacation. And when [00:12:00] I started the process and my doctors said, you know, you really have to jump in very quickly here and get started on this treatment, I, I thought, but I have all these other things to do.
I have, my family’s gonna be here and, you know, I have a trip planned and they allowed me to wait until mid-January of 2017 to start. But in the meantime, you do all the pre-testing, you find out kind of markers you have, you know, they do a biopsy, they, um, set a plan of treatment based upon what they learn. And of course the average person has no idea what it’s gonna lead to.
I stupidly thought that it, my cancer was a minor thing, was caught early, and I would not have a full year of treatment. But no, no, I [00:13:00] was wrong. I had the worst kind of chemo. That lasted from January until June of that year. Um, then they let me take a break and I had surgery midsummer a lumpectomy, the, in July, and then they let me take a break and then I had six weeks of radiation.
So I finished up in the fall of 2017. So it was almost a full year of treatment.
Dorothy: So what type of cancer?
Dinah: I had triple negative cancer, which is very aggressive and so odd because I am not the typical triple negative patient. Um, but my doctor said. Because of your age, I was 68 at the time, because of your age [00:14:00] and your ethnicity, because most triple negative cases are among young, black and Hispanic women.
Dorothy: Yes.
Dinah: And I didn’t fit the profile, but he said it’s, that’s actually working in your favor because if you, uh, uh, get it at an advanced stage and go through all this treatment, uh, the likelihood that you’re not gonna have a problem with this and it won’t recur is, uh, is better than if you were a younger woman.
Dorothy: Oh, yes.
Dinah: So actually, uh, you know, that was shocking to me, mainly because you don’t hear of too many young women who get breast cancer and certainly not this horrible kind of breast cancer, but there, it’s, it’s out there.
Dorothy: Yes. And we are seeing such a, an increase in our young women that it’s, it’s become very concerning. And especially if, if it is triple negative.
Dinah: Yeah. [00:15:00]
Dorothy: Of course treatment is all different now. We know that. But that early detection makes such a difference. Was yours found on a mammogram?
Dinah: Uh, it through a mammogram. Just a regular mammogram. Um, I will be honest that I, I had some idea that there was something going on, ’cause I was feeling these little stinging kind of pains in my left breast. Not, I mean, it was just momentary. Just a sting. Just a sting like this. And I’d think, well, what’s that? What’s that? And I never felt a lump. Never. Even when I went to my oncologist for the first time and she said, didn’t you feel this? And I said, no, I have no, I had no idea. And she said, didn’t you see it? And I said, well, I’m not in the habit of looking for this stuff, but no, I didn’t see it or feel it. And I would never have known about it if I hadn’t had that mammogram.
Dorothy: Oh yeah. That [00:16:00] is. And we often hear this story, and you’re absolutely right. You’re not looking for it.
Dinah: Right.
Dorothy: It’s not something you’re expecting. And so of course you might might miss it easily. So how did you tell your, your family that it—?
Dinah: Oh, well, it was Christmas. So much fun to talk about this at Christmas time. Um, our, uh, our daughter lives in Singapore, so, but she, back then, I think she was still in New York. Um. And I just simply picked up the phone and called her. I don’t think she was home that year for Christmas, but our son came in for Christmas and we had to sit down and tell him. And at that point I really didn’t know much to say except that I’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer. I’m gonna go through this treatment, don’t worry. Everything’s gonna be fine. I’m gonna be just fine. And um, that’s all I knew to tell him. And, [00:17:00] I think most children, he’s a, he was an adult. He’s, you know, he wasn’t a small child, but, um, I, I think everybody in the family was concerned. And of course, I, I mean there, but we didn’t have a big boo-hoo fest or anything about it.
Uh, I, there just wasn’t enough information at that point to really get, um, in the weeds and. I didn’t, I really didn’t have the information to tell ’em.
Dorothy: Right, right.
Dinah: I only knew that I had it. Um, and then I, I have this identical twin, and so as we went further along and the diagnosis and the markers that they found, I said, whoa, wait. I’ve got this person that’s got the same genes as I have. What do we do about her? I mean, she knew I had breast cancer. But I said. Doesn’t she need to get genetic [00:18:00] testing and so forth. And so we both had genetic testing and she, she lives in Kansas City and she consulted a very, very highly respected, um, oncologist in Kansas City who said it does not matter if you have an identical twin and one gets breast cancer, the other one has no more no more chances of getting breast cancer than just the average person on the street, even though you have the same genes.
Dorothy: Interesting.
Dinah: Which does not sound like it, it should be right. But that’s, we got confirmation from both sides, my side and her side. So.
Dorothy: But you know, that’s so true because, you know, women are always saying, well, I don’t have any family history.
Dinah: Mm-hmm.
Dorothy: 95% of all the women who are diagnosed do not have a family history.
Dinah: Right.
Dorothy: Or know of a family history. So, uh, it’s very insidious. I mean, breast cancer just [00:19:00] happens and.
Dinah: Well, and that’s kind of, it’s like. It falls outta the sky and lands on your head.
Dorothy: Yes.
Dinah: In, you know, not the lady next door or the sister that is identical to you. There’s no, there was literally no explanation that I’m aware of for what I got. Uh, and it’s not hormonal. This is triple negative, has nothing to do with your hormones, so, um, you can’t blame them. You can’t blame that. So, uh, it’s just a fluke is what, what it is.
Dorothy: But thank goodness you were having your annual mammogram.
Dinah: Uh, and, you know, a a again, it’s just because whatever they, I’m not one to question my doctors about anything really. And when they, you know, they say, go get a mammogram, that’s what I did every single year. I never, um I never thought I don’t want to, or that’s inconvenient for me. I just [00:20:00] went ahead and did it. And, um, thank goodness. I mean, really.
Dorothy: And you’re absolutely right. It is that finding it early, having that access to a mammogram. Mm-hmm. And that’s what the luncheon allows us to give more of. Because so many women, especially uninsured women, will not have their annual mammograms. You know, we have diagnosed some that have never had a mammogram.
Dinah: I can believe that.
Dorothy: And some that haven’t had one in 10 years. And, you know, certainly we’re always going, oh my gosh, I cannot tell you how many have been diagnosed on their first mammogram. And it’s, it’s just.
Dinah: Oh dear.
Dorothy: So sad. Yeah. But, um, thank goodness that we have people who care and are. Helping us to, to serve those women.
Dinah: Uh, you know, I, years and years ago, I used to get my mammograms at The Rose. Oh, yes. On, uh, there was a clinic on Stella Link. Well, it, this one was right there on [00:21:00] six 10 in Bellaire. Right in there. Uh, and it was convenient for me. And I used to, um, pop in there and just have my mammograms done, and then I realized I could, I could, I had medical, I had insurance uhhuh, I could pay for it and allow another woman to get a, a mammogram.
Dorothy: Right.
Dinah: And I, that was, that made me feel really, really good way back then. And then when I got my own diagnosis, of course, I, things changed and I’m going back to the, yeah, to the same doctors and the same technologists that I see.
Dorothy: But that’s such an important point. Every insured woman helps us to take care of another uninsured. And it’s, it’s really the only way we could do this with the fundraising and our insured ladies. That’s, that’s what makes us all come together. Now, you know, Dinah, you told me something about, uh, your breast cancer experience and, and honestly, I had never heard anyone. I [00:22:00] have interviewed hundreds of breast cancer survivors, but I’ve never heard anyone describe it quite like you did.
Dinah: Well, this is, I don’t think about this a lot, but it, there’s two ways to look at this. I think I had a like a tsunami of medical treatment, it all, all kinds of chemicals, all kinds of drugs, all kinds of x-rays and radiation that, you know, they say impact your body. There, there are still lingering effects of all of that stuff. None that are debilitating. I have. Very little feeling in the ends of my fingers. That’s, but it doesn’t hurt. It’s just I notice that, [00:23:00] I mean, I can notice it right now. Uh, and it didn’t concern me then because it was the only way to kill the cancer.
Dorothy: Mm-hmm.
Dinah: Um, but I do think it has all of that, has some effect on your body. Um. Just every day is a little different. I, I don’t feel like the person I was before breast cancer when, you know, everything was working in sync with, its the other organs were all working together. Some days, one part of me is not working as well as the other parts of me are working and you know, but that may just be age. Dorothy. I don’t know.
Dorothy: No, no, no. When you described it, you said. I, I realized that I didn’t feel like me. And I, I remember stopping you and saying, wait a minute. What do you mean you didn’t feel like you?
Dinah: Well, it’s just like you’re, you, [00:24:00] you’ve become a d— I’ve become a different human. The molecular makeup of me. I don’t think my brain has changed.
Dorothy: Not your spirit. Not your soul.
Dinah: Yeah.
Dorothy: But something changed.
Dinah: The molecular all, how everything works in sync is not the same.
Dorothy: Now see, since you said that, I have asked other survivors.
Dinah: Oh, really?
Dorothy: And they’ve said, well, yeah. Yeah. I, I, I, and one of them said, I don’t, I never described it like that, but it’s true. I, I know something’s very different in me. And I think that’s just a good thing for women to know. I mean, you don’t wanna think something’s wrong with me because I’m feeling this way, but.
Dinah: Well, I don’t know. I mean, of course your brain always goes back to, uh, oh. What could this be? And then part of me just thinks, you know, what did you think was gonna happen?
I mean, did you think [00:25:00] that you were gonna feel like a 40-year-old or a 68-year-old with no health issues? You’re, you’re older now. Stuff happens. I mean, stuff happens, but I do think that the the medical treatment part of this has got to alter you in some way. It’s just, it, it’s inevitable.
It’s, you can’t not be altered. Um, and as I also told you, I think. I had so much chemo and so much radiation, that I can’t have anymore. I mean, there is no more going, that’s a relief. There’s no more going back for chemo, another treatment of chemo. I can’t, I mean, I’ve had the limit. I can’t do it.
Same with radiation. Um, now there may be other treatments that I can take, should this come back in some other form [00:26:00] or, and some other body part. Um, but really I can’t ever retrace that path again, and that I’m grateful for that. When they told me, I don’t ever have to do any of that again, I was like, yes. That’s great.
Dorothy: Well, it is very, yes. Yeah, it takes a lot. It takes a lot out of you.
Dinah: Yeah. But again, but I wanna also say I didn’t, I, I told you this too. I never felt bad. I never had just the horrible, wretched feelings that a lot of people go through. Um, I never felt bad. I carried on with my life. I traveled, I volunteered. I, I, I didn’t miss anything. I was amazed that I could do it, frankly, with, with the treatment being so tough.
Dorothy: Right. Right.
Dinah: Yeah.
Dorothy: Well, you know, that’s another thing about, uh, the breast cancer experience. It is a different experience
Dinah: for everyone.
Yes.
Dorothy: And while there’s some [00:27:00] similarities, it, you know, I always say it’s, it’s your own experience. It’s, it’s not, you can’t compare and you can’t go, well, you know, so-and-so’s doing this and I had to do this, but you just can’t do that because it is your body and it is your, your experience.
Dinah: Well, and you go into the treatment with a different, uh, molecular makeup. I mean, everybody has that. Um, so everything is affected in a lot of small ways. Um, but I’m seven years past all this, and when I think that in reality I have no problems, I mean no health problems, I’m, I’m able to do everything I wanna do and go everywhere I want to go. And, uh, as long as God gives me the ability to do it.
Dorothy: And that, that’s another message, you know?
Dinah: Yeah.
Dorothy: You do survive.
Dinah: Well [00:28:00] and exactly. Just you have to put it in your way back in your, you know, put it in a drawer somewhere and hide it and don’t, and think, well, I wonder what happened to that breast cancer. I can’t remember where I put it. And then.
Dorothy: That’s a great way to think of it.
Dinah: Well, yeah. I.
Dorothy: You put it somewhere safe, so for sure you’ll never end it again.
Dinah: Yeah. I’m not gonna go hunting for it, but I, I think I put it in a drawer and I don’t, I don’t wanna know about it again. Um, and, but we have no control over this. You just have to pray and hope that it’s not gonna come knocking on your door.
Dorothy: That’s true. That’s true. So what is your goal for this lunch?
Dinah: Well. I certainly would love for it to be successful, but in a lot of ways I don’t think I personally have much impact on that.
Dorothy: I think you do, but, well, I, but that’s okay. We’ll argue about that some other times.
Dinah: I’m gonna trust, I’m gonna trust you all to make it [00:29:00] the best success, but I do think the message is that all women have the possibility of getting this. All women and men, and most of them don’t have the advantages that I had, and that we don’t think about them enough. We don’t think about why it was so easy for me and so difficult for somebody else going through the same thing, the same kind of treatment.
They’re all there together. We’re all in that chemo room together, getting the same treatment. Why was I so fortunate? So the message is, we are here to make sure that they get what they deserve and what we got. And I don’t, you know, we can’t control the medical system. It is way too big for me to understand.
And, uh, so [00:30:00] we can do just our part. And that is, and that’s providing a way for them to get these mammograms and early detection and not, uh, fighting the system so much. Not having to, I mean, it’s hard enough to fight the cancer then to have to fight the bureaucracy of all of this is another total insult.
So that’s my message. And, you know, maybe this year of planning and thinking about all this will make me delve into that a little more and figure out, well, you know, where, where can, where can I be a part of helping these women who literally have no avenue to find a, a cure or a, a future.
Dorothy: Oh, so well said. My goodness. Really that is what it’s all about. So thank you so much for being our chair, for sharing your story today. Thank you and, uh, for [00:31:00] helping us help so many.
Dinah: Thank you, Dorothy. This was a pleasure. Lots of fun.
Dorothy: Yes.
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