Angela Phillips Uses Wit, Humor To Overcome Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Southfield (CW50) - Angela Phillips, 53, of Bloomfield Hills, moved to America with her husband and kids from Wales 15 years ago. In 2019, she was diagnosed with breast cancer (right-side ductal carcinoma in situ).

Being from Wales, Phillips sees the humor in many aspects of life. She recently used her diagnosis to inject humor into her life to help her family, friends, and even the doctors at Beaumont see the benefits of using jokes for treatment.

"Cancer doctors have a really hard job. So why not lessen their load?" Phillips explained. "I think it helped them all to remember me in a good way, and I kept myself from feeling frightened."

"Angela is a witty woman. Her humor about the life challenge of a breast cancer diagnosis is a unique way of coping that allowed her to manage her stress and enjoy better overall health during treatment," said Beaumont breast surgeon Dr. Sayee Kiran. "It led her to quickly bond with us and positively framed her treatment experience."

Phillips and her friends would create clever gifts related to breasts to give to Angela's surgeons during every appointment. The doctors and everyone around would get a kick out of guessing the significance of the gift. It allowed her appointments to be less serious and have a greater focus on getting better, rather than the frightening parts of a cancer diagnosis.

Angela Phillips joins Lisa Germani on Community Connect to share her story of how she used humor to overcome a breast cancer diagnosis.

To learn more about breast cancer, go to beaumont.org/conditions/breast-cancer 

Watch COMMUNITY CONNECT, Saturday at 7am on CW50