Married 35 years, a father and now grandfather Mike Davis is loving life. Family comes first, but a close second, his beloved Kentucky Wildcats.
In 2012 during a trip to Baton Rouge to see his Cats that changed his life forever. During that trip the knot on my chest started to itch. At the urging of his wife Diane, Davis saw a doctor and will never forget the look on his face. "As soon as he saw it, he says I know what it is. The doctor said I am almost positive its breast cancer and I'm like no way for a guy, I didn't know it was even possible," said Davis.
While rare, male breast cancer does account for one percent of all new cases. In February of 2012 Davis found himself having a mammogram and then in a hospital having surgery to remove a tumor and three lymph nodes. "The worst part was the helplessness and not knowing and the days he just didn't get out of bed," said Diane.
Davis' Cats would win the national title, but he still had his own battle chemo and radiation.
With the fight behind him, Mike Davis is a new man. On October 4, he proudly put on his bright pink shirt at the urging of his daughter and granddaughter and took his rightful place among the survivors at the Race For the Cure in downtown Lexington.
"I was pretty hesitant at first because I'm going to be the only guy, people are going to stare and some people did take a double take," said Davis. It was an emotional morning, but in the end those stares proved to be a way for Mike to reach out and remind others that male breast cancer is real and his place among those survivors was a loud message to other men.
"It’s short and sweet. Guys can get it too and had I known I would have caught mine months ahead of time," said Davis.
Story by WKYT Amber Philpott
Lexington, KY
