Survivor’s story

Published 2:27 pm Friday, April 2, 2010

Mack Reed, 46, is a survivor. Today, he is cancer free. However in December of 2008 that was not the case.  He was battling a rare disease, affecting the base of his coccyx, known as a sacrum chordoma.

 Sybil, Mack’s wife of 25 years, described the chordoma as a disorder caused by the remnants of the notochord from the embryo. “You’re born with it,” Sybil said. “With most embryos your notochord dissolves as you form, but for some reason his didn’t. It stayed at the base of his tailbone and formed the cancer.”

“There are 300 cases a year in the United States,” Mack added. “They told me they found the cancer early. Normally, most people find out between the ages of 55 and 65.”

“I was having lower back pains,” he said. “It had been hurting me for about a year and I thought I had just bruised my tailbone or chipped it and it wasn’t healing right. One day, I went in for an MRI and they found the cancer.”

When he went to the doctor to get the results of the MRI he was told about a premier doctor at UAB and that was where he went.  “We were lucky,” he said. In January 2009, he went to have the chordoma removed and started his nine month period of recovery. “They prepared us for the worst,” said Mack. “It was a 12 and a half hour surgery and we were told there was a chance I might not walk again.”

Since that time, he has walked again. It has been a hard journey, but he is taking it day by day. With faith as his rock and his wife, family and friends as his strength, he fought the battle that many including his doctors said would be a hard and sometimes impossible.

Reed had his friends and coworkers at Poe Electric in Moody supporting him along the way as well as strong faith-based family including Sybil and their children Jeremy, Candace and Brooke. He has been with Poe Electric for the past 11 years. This year, they relay in his honor. 

“I think our faith in God has kept us strong,” said Sybil. “We knew he had led us here and he was going to lead us through it.”

 “You don’t realize what kind of friends you have and the family you have until something like this happens,” she added. “People always say, ‘call if you need anything.’ We didn’t have to call them.  They were there. We had total strangers feeding us. We didn’t know them, but they made sure we had everything we needed. It meant a lot to all of us.”

Reed said he has been involved in Relay for Life in the past at Moody High School where his children attended school and Crossroads Animal Hospital where his daughter, Candace, works. He added his daughter got involved in Relay for Life at Moody High School in the ninth grade. She went on to be team captain and later met Dr. Rachel Nelson. “Last year, she wasn’t going to do Relay because she had so much going with attending school at UAB and working full-time,” said Sybil. “Then Mack was diagnosed. She knew then she couldn’t walk away from it.”

Mack said he had walked every year his daughter has been involved with Relay for Life. In May of 2009 his feelings were no different. Although doctors told him he might not ever walk again, he made the survivor lap at the Leeds/Moody Relay for Life. “He got out of the hospital on March 6 and pushed himself for two months so he could walk in the Relay,” said Sybil. “We had a new grandbaby, Jackson. He was four months old when he got diagnosed. When he was six months old he strolled the lap with granddaddy. It was so important for Mack to do that.” The Reeds said Relay for Life means hope and that its true cause really hits home. They know from experience you don’t have to walk alone during the journey. “It is not a death sentence,” said Mack.

“All of his CT scans since removal have been clear,” said Sybil. “I guess I still have a few limitations, but I’m working on them. I don’t want to be limited in any way,” Mack concluded.

“We have been really blessed to have a great family and an awesome employer,” said Sybil and Mack. “We couldn’t thank them enough.”

This year, Mack has another chance to take the survivor lap.

His grandson Jackson, now 18 months and walking, will most likely be by his side.