Loretta Herring turns her second breast cancer battle into a mission of hope

By Chanda Temple

I still remember the day I met Lorretta Herring. 

It was the first Friday in October 2024, and the City of Birmingham’s Pink Parade in support of breast cancer survivors had just wrapped. Temperatures hovered around the high 70s in Linn Park, and Ms. Loretta sat at a table, sharing breast cancer awareness info through her organization, the Cancer Awareness Network. 

Her smile was infectious, and so was her joy.  

Loretta Herring (Photo by Chanda Temple)
Loretta Herring at the 2024 Pink Parade in Linn Park (Photo by Chanda Temple)

I thanked her for being one of many organizations present in the park that day. And as we continued to talk, I immediately understood why God told me to take the conversation deeper. Ms. Loretta told me that just five weeks earlier, she had undergone a double mastectomy. Her chest was still wrapped in bandages that covered stitches from her surgery.

My mouth fell open as she continued. 

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Why a simple meal can mean everything during breast cancer treatments

By Chanda Temple

It was Deidra Sanderson’s first day of chemotherapy, and things were super busy. 

She wanted to try to save her hair from falling out during chemotherapy, so she opted to do something known as “cold capping,” which required her brother, who was by her side, to put a cap on her head to keep her scalp below freezing. Since he had to change the cap every 15 minutes, he was unable to take a break to even get them something to eat.

Then, Deidra received a text message that felt as though it was heaven sent. Becky Holt, a friend and fellow Junior League of Birmingham member, asked Deidra if she could bring her anything. Lunch? Coffee? Magazines?

Deidra said she’d like lunch, if it wasn’t too much trouble.  

Deidre Sanderson was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2017, and she started chemotherapy in February 2018. She later had a lumpectomy and then radiation. She completed her radiation treatments in August 2018. (Photo provided by Deidre Sanderson)
Deidra Sanderson was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2017, and she started chemotherapy in February 2018. She later had a lumpectomy and then radiation. She completed her radiation treatments in August 2018. (Photo provided by Deidre Sanderson)

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Sheila Williams beat cancer and found her voice in giving others laughter

By Chanda Temple

The way Sheila Williams sees it, breast cancer saved her life. 

Back in 2013, she was a 47 year old with bad eating habits and a tendency to grab the easiest meals while on the run. 

Everything fried was her life.

But when her doctor encouraged her to swap out greasy foods for whole foods, she listened.  

“I like to eat, but my first day of chemo, I couldn’t taste nothing. The only thing that kept me was salad,” she said. 

Breast cancer forced Sheila Williams to change her eating habits. "Sometimes, we have to be forced to get back on the right track. Cancer saved my life,'' she said. (Photo provided by Sheila Williams)
Breast cancer forced Sheila Williams to change her eating habits from fried chicken and fried pork chops to salad. “Sometimes, we have to be forced to get back on the right track. Cancer saved my life,” she said. (Photo provided by Sheila Williams)

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Melons and Miracles: How Judge Patricia Stephens found comfort during chemotherapy

By Chanda Temple

Every third Wednesday for four months, Jefferson County Divorce Court Judge Patrica Stephens had chemotherapy before undergoing a lumpectomy in March 2020.

The treatments left her nauseous, and she didn’t feel like eating.

“During that first week and a half, you don’t feel good,’’ she said. “You are queasy, and you feel like you are walking around in a dark cloud.’’

But she found solace in watermelons, honeydew melons, cantaloupe and the Galia melon, which is a hybrid of the honeydew and cantaloupe. They were lightweight and stayed on her stomach.

The chill of the melons from Publix, took her back to her childhood and away from the reality of cancer. And for that one moment at the dinner table, a bowl full of glistening green or orange melons was the only thing that mattered. 

Jefferson County Judge Patricia Stephens was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2019. She had chemotherapy from October 2019 to February 2020. She had a lumpectomy in March 2020. Today, she is a cancer-free. (Photo provided by Patricia Stephens)
Jefferson County Judge Patricia Stephens was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2019. She had chemotherapy from October 2019 to February 2020. And she had a lumpectomy in March 2020. Today, she is a cancer-free. (Photo provided by Patricia Stephens)

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Brenda Hong turned her cancer battle into a lifeline for Birmingham survivors

By Chanda Temple

The first time Brenda Hong was told she had breast cancer, she was fired up, feeling like she could beat it. And she did.

But three years later in 1994, the cancer returned and it was hard to ignite that fire again.

“All that energy and faith I had were gone because you weren’t the victor you thought you were. That makes you depressed,” she said. “But somehow, because of my faith, I was able to come out of that dark hole. But I had bloody fingers because I dug my way out.”

“It wasn’t easy.”

Brenda Hong had a lumpectomy in 1991. Cancer returned in 1994, and she had a mastectomy. (Photo provided by Brenda Hong.)
Brenda Hong fought breast cancer twice. “The first time, I had a lumpectomy and that was my decision. That was because I didn’t want to have my breast removed,” she said. “But the second time around, you’re like, ‘Screw that. Take (my breast). I don’t really need it. … So, have at it.’ ” (Photo provided by Brenda Hong.)

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Niki’s West meals helped fuel Tonya Allen’s fight against breast cancer

*In America, one in eight women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during their lifetime. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I will be profiling one female breast cancer survivor each day in October 2025. The stories will also highlight a food from a Birmingham, AL restaurant or vendor they liked at some point during their breast cancer journey or today. The series is called “SurviveHer at the Table: Food. Faith. Fight.”

By Chanda Temple

Tonya Allen ran her hand across her right breast and couldn’t believe it. A small lump sat beneath her fingertips.

“This couldn’t be cancer,’’ she thought. “Not me!’’

But a later visit with the doctor and a 3-D mammogram confirmed she had an estrogen-positive cyst, which would rise in her breast when she was on her period and go down when she went off her period.

Denial was strong that January morning in 2020 as the doctor suggested an option: “You should have a lumpectomy.’’ But Tonya needed more information before making such a big decision.

Tonya Allen is employed by Birmingham City Schools and works with students with dyslexia. (Photo provided by Tonya Allen)
Tonya Allen is employed by Birmingham City Schools and works with students with dyslexia. (Photo provided by Tonya Allen)

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How one Birmingham breast cancer survivor reclaimed her taste and joy after chemo

*In America, one in eight women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer during their lifetime. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I will be profiling one female breast cancer survivor each day in October 2025. The stories will also highlight a food from a Birmingham, AL restaurant or vendor they liked at some point during their breast cancer journey or today. The series is called “SurviveHer at the Table: Food. Faith. Fight.” The stories can be found on this blog under the tag SurviveHer in the search bar.

By Chanda Temple

Cancer treatments not only robbed Marie Sutton of her right breast and hair in 2018, they also robbed her of the ability to taste.

Some of her favorite flavors were now distant memories.

She could only admire the garlic butter brushed across the thick crust on her favorite spicy pizza.  

Her mother’s macaroni and cheese was pretty on a plate but foreign to her palate.

And the crunch of fried catfish was all she could appreciate because the filets simply tasted like sand.

Marie Sutton (Photo provided by Marie Sutton) Marie Sutton (Photo provided by Marie Sutton)
Marie Sutton is cancer-free after being diagnosed with cancer in January 2018, undergoing a mastectomy in September 2018 and having more than 30 lymph nodes removed. (Photo provided by Marie Sutton)

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Southbound Food Festival fans flock to Bomb Biscuit for stacked-high biscuits

By Chanda Temple

Erika Council is used to lines.

One forms outside her Atlanta restaurant, Bomb Biscuit Co., every weekend as people wait to get their fix on one of her stacked, pillowy buttermilk biscuits filled with fried chicken, scrambled eggs, bacon and more. The wait is usually an hour.

But luckily for Birmingham residents, the wait at Sloss Furnaces today wasn’t anywhere near that long. Granted, there was a continuous line at Erika’s tent during the Southbound Food Festival’s Funk Brunch, where she offered buttered, golden biscuits filled with a hot honey glazed fried thigh and bread and butter pickles. Yet, the line moved quickly and easily as a team fried the chicken on site, dipped it into the glaze, plated it and handed it off to attendees, one by one.

The biscuit looked like a skyscraper on a plate. Its height and layers were enough to turn heads.

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How a bowl of snow cream and 32 million views sparked Jimmy Proffitt’s cookbook deal

By Chanda Temple

Can we talk about the power of manifestation for a minute?

About six or seven years ago, Jimmy Proffitt told himself he was going to write a book. He didn’t know when. He didn’t know how. He didn’t even know the topic. But he knew he was going to write one.

Then, he wrote it down and said it out loud. (Which are all ways to stay true to manifesting, which is believing you can do something, staying focused on it, remaining positive on it and working on it until it becomes reality.)

It took Jimmy Proffitt of East Tennessee only six months to write his first cookbook, "Seasoned in Appalachia,'' because he had been preparing for years as he manifested that he would write a cookbook one day. He already had the recipes and stories when two publishers contacted him in 2024. (Photo by Chanda Temple)
It took Jimmy Proffitt of East Tennessee only six months to write his first cookbook, “Seasoned in Appalachia,” because he had been preparing for years as he manifested that he would write a cookbook one day. He already had the recipes and stories when two publishers contacted him in 2024. (Photo by Chanda Temple)

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From Naysayers to New Flavors, Sarah Cole Brings Egyptian Food to Rural Alabama

By Chanda Temple

The blood that runs through Sarah Cole’s veins is half Egyptian and half Southern, a blend that shows up in her food story.

Chef and writer Sarah Cole, from Greensboro, AL with her husband, Robert Fitzpatrick, and their son, Theo. (Photo by Chanda Temple)
Chef and writer Sarah Cole, from Greensboro, AL with her husband, Robert Fitzpatrick, and their son, Theo. (Photo by Chanda Temple)

That mix is what fueled her dream of bringing Egyptian food to Greensboro, a rural city in west-central Alabama, where fast food chains and meat-and-three restaurants appear across the landscape like dots on a domino. While friends supported her, some people questioned her vision. Their whispers got back to her: “Make sure she knows to include something very Southern on the menu because we are probably not going to like her spices too much.”

The words stung, but Sarah refused to let negativity stop her because they were just opinions, and opinions don’t build dreams. Courage does.

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