Portia Lawson, who lives in Birmingham’s Ensley community, recalls the phone call last year from her doctor: “He told me that he found cancer cells in my urethra,” she said.
“It was quite a shock to me because I had just gotten over a quadruple bypass heart surgery that same year,” she continued. “I was back in the gym, and here comes the cancer bomb. I did the natural crying. I just had to suck it up and knew I had to be strong. … I had to accept it. It was hard, but I did accept it.
There were a lot of tests, appointments, and a lot she didn’t understand when she was first diagnosed with urethral cancer in September 2024, Lawson said…