At 3 p.m. on a cold Friday in January 2018, Melisa Plotner-Moore received a call with news she never wanted to hear: The biopsy was positive. She was diagnosed with non-hormonal breast cancer.
“When you first receive the news, you don’t know anything about it,” Plotner-Moore says. “You have so many questions.”
The next six months brought answers, more questions, surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy treatments. In the month of June she received radiation treatments for 20 days in a row.
“[With chemo and radiation] there’s a 90% chance it won’t come back,” she says. “With this type of cancer, if it does come back, it likes to in the first five years and can metastasize fast in your brain, bones and lungs. If that happens, there’s not much they can do for you.”
Breast cancer is second only to certain types of skin cancer as the most common cancer in women, and also the second-most common cause of death from cancer among women, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Women over the age of 40 are encouraged to get annual mammograms to check for cancer.
“Without 3D mammography, we never would have found the lump, especially not as early as we did,” adds Plotner-Moore, who lives in Thawville, Ill. “You’ve got to make time to take care of yourself.”
Breast cancer treatment options include surgeries to remove lumps, mastectomies, chemotherapy and radiation. It’s critical to catch breast cancer as early as possible to increase patient’s odds of beating the disease. Mammograms are key to catching it.
Treatment is physically as well as mentally exhausting for patients. For Plotner-Moore, the 20 days of radiation treatments were challenging, but she powered through.
Plotner-Moore says growing up on a farm helped her get up and do what it took to survive.
“Growing up on the farm whether you got bucked off a horse or kicked by a cow, you learn to keep going,” she adds. Her can-do attitude, and admittedly competitive nature, also meant she didn’t let cancer get in the way of her passion of tractor pulling.
Plotner-Moore’s pulling tractor, Cash Rent, sports a breast cancer awareness ribbon at each pull. Throughout her treatments and the 2018 season, her competitors rallied around her to keep her in good spirits and provide encouragement throughout her recovery.
She missed the first few pulls of the season because of her cancer treatments, but in early July got back on her “iron horse” and finished the season 10th in her class. Plotner-Moore is quick to mention her placing excludes the first few pulls, so she likely could have finished higher.
“I’m so glad she didn’t just sit in the house; I wanted her to be able to get out,” says Joel Moore, her husband. “As Melisa was going through radiation I made living quarters in the pulling semi-trailer, complete with air conditioning and a bathroom. That way if we got somewhere and she was tired or didn’t feel up to it she could be comfortable but still able to get out.”
The couple started pulling tractors together about five years ago with Cash Rent. They added a second tractor for Joel in recent years called The Other Woman. Joel serves as the pair’s mechanic for their International and Ford machines.
Cash Rent speaks to the funding for her hobby. When Plotner-Moore’s mother passed away, she inherited farm ground but because the couple has other full-time jobs they decided to cash rent the property instead of farm it themselves. Plotner-Moore serves as auditor for the Illinois Secretary of State and Joel is an engineer.
Plotner-Moore still keeps horses and some livestock. She says getting to do what she loves, with kind people, has been a dream come true.
“It was so nice to be surrounded by such supportive people,” she says. “Throughout my journey, I found that every day you can find something to be grateful for—even on your worst day there is always something to be grateful for.”
Each year, approximately 237,000 women and 2,100 men are diagnosed with breast cancer, according to CDC research. While women are more frequently diagnosed, men can and do get breast cancer. Talk with doctors if you experience anything suspicious, because catching cancer early is the key to beating it.
Currently in remission, Plotner-Moore sports pink at every tractor pull and shares her story. She’s happy to be cancer-free and sympathizes with women currently battling breast cancer. When she gets behind the wheel of her iron horse, she’s grateful to use her platform to spread awareness.
