KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A few months after beginning her new job at the Kansas City Veterans Administration Medical Center, doctors diagnosed Nicci Buford with a rare form of cancer: adenoid cystic carcinoma of the carotid and salivary glands.
Buford says the cancer was stage 4.
“It (cancer) had started traveling up the nerves up into my eye and that’s what was causing the painful twitching," Buford said. "I was truly blessed we caught it when we did. It was already there about two or three years."
After several surgeries, beginning in 2018, and radiation, Buford is now cancer free.
But the process left its mark. Buford has paralysis on the right side of her face and a scar along her neck.
“My whole face was completely distorted from it, and it was just not who I thought I was," Buford said. "But I realized this is me. This is who I am. This brings awareness. If someone came and asked me before, I almost felt offended.
"Now I’m like, ‘Yes, let me tell you about it and why I wear this so proudly.’ It’s been an opportunity for me to reach others in a way I never thought I could.”
April is Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Month.
Head and neck cancers impact patients’ throats, mouths, larynx and other areas like salivary glands, in Buford’s case.
“It’s a fairly significant cancer because it does involve the head and neck where you breathe, you eat, chew, swallow,” explained Dr. January Fields, interim chief of KCVA’s oncology department. “It impacts several significant daily activities.”
The nationwide organization Head and Neck Cancer Alliance is encouraging people to host move-a-thon fundraisers all month.
The idea is to encourage people to move, which promotes good, general health, while raising awareness about cancer.
Head and Neck Cancer Alliance gives patients gas cards, runs education programs, and supports patients and their families from diagnosis to survivorship.
Buford teamed up with therapist Laine Bowman to sponsor the “About Face Brigade KC” move-a-thon team. Their goal is to raise $10,680 as 68,000 people receive a head and neck cancer diagnosis each year.
The team also wants to raise awareness about how annual screenings and the HPV vaccines can help detect and prevent these cancers.
“It just takes one person to reach 10. If we can do that, wow, what can we do to further the research, to really make a dent in stopping, essentially, this type of cancer,” Buford said.
Green Day band member Jason White will host a virtual concert for Head and Neck Alliance on April 29. White is a tonsil cancer survivor.
To view the concert, make a charitable donation here.
