Beyond the Sidelines: A Family’s Fight, a Community’s Heart
George Maya has paced along the sidelines for more than 40 years as the Mayfield girls basketball head coach. And for the past decade, his daughter, Jeneca Maya Montoya, has been on the bench beside him as his assistant and junior varsity coach. “I love being here with my dad, but it’s the kids,” said Jeneca Maya Montoya. “The girls light up a room when they come in, and when they work hard you can see them progress from the summer to the end of the season, it makes my heart happy.”
But now, that heart has been tested in ways no one could prepare for. “I was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, a fancy word for cancer, on July 14th,” said Jeneca.
“Our lives completely changed from then on,” said her father.
“I got a biopsy on a Friday and Sunday we had our son’s third birthday party, so I was able to enjoy that before my life turned upside down,” she said.
For the man who has coached through close games and heartbreaking losses, this was a battle he couldn’t help his daughter fight from the sidelines. “Not being able to do anything about it is what’s so difficult for me, especially when I see her suffer, and not eating,” said a teary-eyed father. “We’ve always talked about having a lot of faith, so now we not only say it, we have to live it. She’s been so strong, my wife has been so strong, that’s what’s been carrying me.”
The real strength comes from Jeneca, a wife and mother of two battling breast cancer. “I’m Stage Four, I don’t think that will ever get easier to say,” she explained with tears in her eyes. “It spread a little bit to my liver and my eighth rib, but my oncologist is very optimistic.”
Jeneca travels to Arizona every three weeks for chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment. The medical care takes a toll physically and emotionally. “It’s been hard, it’s been really hard,” she said. “Physically the chemo knocks you down. There’s times when I’m in bed for over a week. Nauseous, not eating, tired. Emotionally it’s taken it’s toll, being away from my kids at Vista, being away from the girls here, my kids wanting me to get out of bed and I just can’t, it’s been hard.”
Through it all, the Mayfield community has surrounded her with love — and hope. “Just the fact that how many people are just so supportive in this town, there’s no amount of words that can thank them for that,” she said. “People that have been diagnosed and survived have reached out to me and let me know that my feelings are vaild. It’s just been overwhelming and I can never thank this community enough.”
“It’s unbelievable how much support and how many people we have praying for her,” said Maya. “You think the world is changing, but it all comes back to how people care for each other and I found out how much they love her, how much people care for us, I’ve been overwhelmed.”
Even with pain and uncertainty, Jeneca’s mission remains clear: to fight, to inspire, and to remind others to take care of themselves. “It’s never too early to get this,” she said. “When I found the lump I thought ‘I don’t have cancer, I’m too young.’ That’s not the case. I would like young women to do regular breast exams, advocate for themselves, know your body. Of the millions of people who get this, sometimes you feel so alone, I just feel so alone sometimes, but you are never alone. I hope people can understand they’re never alone.”
“From the basketball standpoint, I think all the kids have stopped to think how something like this can change your life very quickly, and this is just another bump in the road you just go around it and keep going,” said the veteran coach. “I hope people can see her and how she’s taking it in stride and hopefully we all learn that we can do this.”
Maya has over 600 career wins, but his basketball family is determined to find their biggest victory through faith, love, strength and support.
A friend of the Maya family has sent up an online donation website. Any monetary donations assist in expenses that are not covered by her insurance (travel expenses, monthly living expenses, etc). If you are available to donate, click on the link below.
UPDATE: A full body scan that Jeneca had done last Monday revealed her liver is clear, back to normal; her rib is healing and the tumor in her breast has shrunk from over 8cm to under 2cm. One more round of Chemo to go on November 19th.
