Young woman hopes for first pregnancy, despite cancer

OAKLAND – Jessica Kennedy's dream is to have a kid. Maybe twins, but, for now, she hopes to have at least one healthy child.

However, as Kennedy learned, she is risking her life for to fulfill that dream. That's because Kennedy, a 29-year-old woman, has cervical cancer — once again.

Now, since her first diagnosis, Kennedy is on a mission to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization and wants all young women know: Get the HPV vaccine.

What happened to Kennedy

Kennedy first learned she had a rare type of cervical cancer in March 2014, one week after she moved from the largest city in Texas, Houston, to rural Marion County. She was 27 at the time when she received a diagnosis from Baxter Regional Medical Center.

"It was crazy that they even found it. It was still in cell form. The kind I had was villoglandular adenocarcinoma, which is a very small percentage of cervical cancer," Kennedy said recently, relaxing at home during her day off work. "In a month, it went from cell form to a big tumor."

Kennedy says that she never received the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine when she was younger.

According to the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "In most cases, HPV goes away on its own and does not cause any health problems. But when HPV does not go away, it can cause health problems like genital warts and cancer."

"I was about 24, 25 and nobody really knew at the time what the vaccine was," she said, adding she heard she didn't need the shot. "I never got it. I never knew anything about it. It was like the black sheep that nobody talked about. I had no idea it could lead to all of these cancers, male and female cancers."

At that time, Kennedy and her 24-year-old husband, Clay, had been talking about raising a family, but when she found out she had cervical cancer, it was "like hitting a brick wall," she said.

"It's one of those things where you think it's never going to be you. Never going to be you," said Kennedy, sadly.

Dream to have a family

After the diagnosis, Kennedy went to see an oncologist in Memphis, Tenn., about five hours away from home. Kennedy soon had a cone biopsy at a Memphis hospital, getting the tumor removed in April 2014. Kennedy healed, but she learned in recovery that it healed over her cervical canal. Now, she says, she will have to have surgery to re-open the cervical canal and undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF) if she wishes have a baby.

"My whole life's dream is to have a family, so I'll risk my life to have a family," she said.

By May of last year, Kennedy believed she was "cancer free," but she wasn't.

She was diagnosed with another type of cervical cancer, squamous cell, which she is battling currently. She says doctors have given her about three months to get pregnant through IVF. If she succeeds, after birth, Kennedy will have a hysterectomy and radiation to treat the type of cervical cancer she has today.

"You're sick all the time. You're puking. You're passing out. I hide it from everybody, and they ask me, 'How do you get up and go to work every day?' " Kennedy said. She works at Home Depot. "I want to show the fact that I have cancer, but cancer doesn't have me."

Her Home Depot "family" shows support for Kennedy along with users of a Facebook group called "The Teal Ladies," an online community she turns to often to talk.

"Some people might think it's crazy, but some people have certain dreams and some others have dreams of a family," Kennedy explained. "I fought so hard for a year, I'm not ready to give up. It sounds kind of crazy, but I did everything I can to save it. I could have just had the hysterectomy and be done with it at the beginning, but I never thought it would go this far."

Kennedy explains that she has considered adoption, however, she says agencies will not adopt to a cancer patient.

If she gets pregnant, one thing is for certain, she says, "That child will be insanely loved" — especially by future grandparents.

How to help Jessica

Kennedy's mother, Brenda Peine, recently set up a GoFundMe account in order to support her daughter.

The goal of the GoFundMe account is to help pay for the costs incurred from the cervical canal surgery, IVF and transportation costs to the Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women in Memphis. The family estimates about $70,000 in costs, which is what the amount goal is set at currently on the website, gofundme.com/jkennedy.

Peine, whom Kennedy lives with in Oakland, created the GoFundMe account with a warning to other parents, "If you do not have your daughter vaccinated for HPV and do not get yearly PAP tests, this could be about your daughter." Peine says the family is asking for help as they have donated to others previously on the site.

When Kennedy thinks of life after cancer, she adds that part of her dream is to start a local support group as well as get back to volunteering, a hobby of hers.

About the HPV vaccine

Genital HPV is a common sexually transmitted virus, but it can cause cervical cancer in women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. The CDC estimates that about 20 million Americans are infected with HPV, though most infections do not show symptoms, leaving many to be unaware that they have the virus.

Information provided by the Baxter County Health Unit says that HPV is associated also with less common cancers, such as vaginal and vulvar cancers in women, and anal and oropharyngeal cancers in both men and women.

The local health unit, however, is one clinic that offers one of three HPV vaccines that may be administered to women and men under the age of 19. The vaccine can prevent most cases of cervical cancer in women, if it is given before exposure to the virus, according to the CDC. The HPV shot is given in three doses over a six-month period. While the vaccine is recommended for young preteen and teenage girls, it is also recommended for women 13-26 who have not been vaccinated.

Women are also encouraged to receive Pap tests, a cervical cancer screening, on a consistent basis. Each year, about 12,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and of that CDC estimate, 4,000 women die each year from the disease.

For more information about the HPV vaccine, call the Baxter County Health Unit at 425-3072.