Veteran Fox 5 reporter Aungelique Proctor announced she has stage 2 stomach cancer and is currently in treatment.
Proctor, who has been with the station for 26 years, had taken time off this fall from work to deal with fatigue and stomach pain. That’s when the doctors discovered the tumor.
“To find the mass was really shocking,” Proctor said in a news report on Fox 5 (WAGA-TV). She added in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday: “Cancer was the last thing on my mind.”
She added on TV: “By me sharing my cancer story, it might help someone else, to remove the stigma of, ‘This is something we shouldn’t talk about. This is something you fight quietly in the dark alone. I plan to fight in the open, and if it’s God’s will, I will win.”
Proctor, in the interview, said she first thought the fatigue and pain stemmed from thyroid issues. Then she had her heart checked. But it was existing ulcers in her stomach the doctors found that led to them seeing the tumor, which is about 5 inches across.
She is currently a patient at Emory Winship Cancer Institute being treated for a rare gastrointestinal stromal tumor.
Her doctor Maria Diab told Fox 5: “The good news is we have not seen any evidence of spread outside of the stomach, and for Aungelique’s case, the plan is to do a few months of the Imatinib medicine, and go back and have surgery, hopefully.”
She said she will take the chemo pill for six to nine months before they opt for surgery to remove what was apparently a slow-growing tumor.
Proctor said she did some research and saw that the median survival for someone with this tumor was just five years. But because hers was caught early, she has a much higher chance to beat this.
As for her energy level now, she said, “On a scale of 1 to 10, I’m a 10! I’m back exercising and doing everything I normally do. I’m cooking and working.”
She is having Thanksgiving with her mom and college-age daughters. “I have so many things to be thankful for ― especially this year.”
An Atlanta native and University of Georgia graduate, Proctor previously worked at WTLV in Jacksonville, Florida, WKRC in Cincinnati, Ohio, WMAZ in Macon and WALB in Albany. She also took part in “Lawmakers” at Georgia Public Broadcasting. Before that, she worked at several radio stations in Cincinnati.
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