COLUMBUS, Miss. (CMSD) – Everyday Evette Rice walks in her battle with breast cancer and in her faith, clinging to Romans 8:37… “I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ.
“We have to follow up every year with everybody your surgeon, your oncologist, your mammogram, everybody for the rest of your life. So, the battle doesn’t just stop upon diagnosis or the completion of surgery or just because you’re in remission. It doesn’t mean that the battle is over, you’re still battling because you have to see those practitioners, clinicians, and physicians. You must see everybody on that team for the rest of your life in conjunction with any other specialist that you may have,” explained Rice.
Rice, a Special Education Inclusion teacher at Columbus Middle School, was officially diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2013. She had a mastectomy on her left breast just a few weeks later. Several other medical procedures would follow in the coming months.
“It wasn’t just one battle that I had to fight and be able to deal to tell the story… And I love telling the story, because I bring the glory of God every time, I tell it her because I know that I would not have made it without him,” said Rice.
With the help of family and her now late son, she pushed forward.
During her health battles she opened her home to foster children. She adopted two of them.
Rice also has a background as a therapist/counselor.
Through the storms life has brought her, Rice says she still learns something from the children she teaches every day.
“It inspires me to encourage people never look at your disability but look at your ability. Your abilities to thrive regardless of how many assignments Satan throws at you or how many obstacles in life you have to trudge through, you have enough courage enough to get up and go… I still have joy. You must learn how to grab a rope and just hold on Because the storm will cease and now, I feel a calmness coming even in the storm,” said Rice.
She was officially hired full-time by the Columbus Municipal School District in January 2018. A motto Rice gives her students is, with the right amount of support you can accomplish anything.
“I do love each and every student. Sometimes, depending on the atmosphere, when they come in I’m able to since the atmosphere among them and I know when there are problems. And sometimes for the first five or 10, we’ll just have a therapeutic talk to allow them to expel their feelings and after that it’s on,” said Rice.
She encourages each breast cancer patient to listen to their doctor and follow their instructions.
“I’m just grateful to be able to tell my story to somebody, and that hopefully I’ll be able to help somebody as they travel along and perhaps go through the very same thing,” said Rice.