Mike Locksley has battled on the football field for 20-plus years, but nothing could prepare him for the news that his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Locksley’s mother, Venita Locksley, a fighter, survived breast cancer.
She flew into Albuquerque on Wednesday to support her son and the Lobos when they played Colorado State during the “Think Pink” game at University Stadium on Saturday.
“My mother has been battling breast cancer since 2001,” Locksley said. “I can remember I was coaching at the University of Maryland when I first heard about my mom. The first thing that came to my mind when you hear cancer is: How long does she have to live? How bad is it, and how far along is she?”
UNM players will wear pink ribbons on the back of their helmets, and the coaching staff will wear pink polo shirts to commemorate breast cancer survivors in New Mexico.
A tailgate reception is set for breast cancer survivors before kickoff, and, during a quarter break, a short ceremony will be held to honor the survivors in attendance.
Melanie Royce, who is a clinician and associate professor of hematology and oncology at the University, said this is a noteworthy cause.
Breast cancer afflicts one in seven women in the United States, Royce said. Each year about 200,000 women are diagnosed with the disease in the U.S., and 40,000 cases are fatal. Nearly 1,100 New Mexican women are diagnosed with breast cancer and 220 of those women die, Royce said.
There are other women associated with the UNM football team affected by breast cancer. Lobos’ offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey’s mother and mother-in-law are breast cancer survivors, and defensive coordinator Doug Mallory’s mother is a survivor of the disease.
“To see the women, and not just the women, but to see the people who have been able to overcome and survive it — you know, those are tough-minded people, because what they go through puts a lot of this stuff we are doing out here on the field in perspective,” Locksley said.
Since 1990, the number of fatal cases of breast cancer has decreased, Royce said, and it tugs at the heart to see patients survive.
“Women who are survivors of breast cancer really give you a perspective to how devastating (breast cancer is), even when you survive it,” she said. “The journey that women have gone through, from discovering that there is something abnormal, to the diagnosis of breast cancer, through the treatments — for some women through their survivorship, they found out how difficult it was when they are freed.”
Thus, Locksley said, it would be a disservice if he and the UNM athletics program didn’t get behind the cause, especially since the disease has personally affected him and his staff.
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“Seeing the strides that have been made in overcoming breast cancer are just amazing,” he said. “But there are still a lot of people who haven’t had the fortune of being able to overcome it like my mom has and Darrell Dickey’s mom and Doug Mallory’s mom. For me it was initially tough to take.”
