In early 2022, Shaedra Byrd started receiving compliments from friends about how great she looked after dropping the baby weight since her son was born about a year earlier. At 38, she was a busy working mom of two; when she started experiencing stomach pain she assumed it was something she ate. After realizing she had lost 100 lbs., she went to the doctor and was soon diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer. Now, after chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and more chemotherapy, “she’s doing fantastic,” says her colorectal surgeon, Dr. Aakash Gajjar, 47, who removed Byrd’s tumor at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital. Today, Byrd has no evidence of disease. Dr. Gajjar says that with her type of cancer, if it were to recur, it would usually happen in the first 3 years. So, he is optimistic. Byrd, 41, feels positive as well. “I want to show people the strength that it takes to go through and still prevail and still be here.”
Below is her story, as told to PEOPLE’s Wendy Grossman Kantor.
My life was really, really hectic in 2022. My daughter was in fifth grade, and she was playing volleyball. It was exciting to go to her games on the weekends. I also had a one-year-old son.
People were telling me that I was slimming down. When your friends are saying, “Hey girl, you’re looking good,” you don’t really think that it’s something health-wise that you need look into. I thought maybe I’m just doing something right — being more active with the kids.
But in February 2022, I started having abdominal pain. I changed my diet. I was eating chicken and salads. I kept a food journal to figure out what was going on.
Then I noticed that even when I wasn’t eating, I was still having abdominal pain. My appetite also changed. Normally, during Mardi Gras season, I always get crawfish. I bought four or five pounds of crawfish and as I sat to eat it with my daughter, I could only eat about three or four crawfish. I ended up giving it away.
In March, I was going to the restroom every five minutes. I would feel like I have to poo, but nothing was coming out. And when it would come out, it wouldn’t be formed. It would be a blob.
I said, “You know what? I haven’t weighed myself since I had my son.”
I stepped on the scale, and said, “I need to go to the doctor.” After I had my son, I was 270 pounds. That day, I weighed 198. I had lost almost 100 pounds without trying.
When I went to the doctor in May, my primary care doctor said everything was looking okay. She ordered an abdominal ultrasound. At my follow-up appointment, she said, “Everything looks great. I’m kind of puzzled because all your symptoms are in your abdominal area and we’re not seeing anything. Your liver looks okay. Your ovaries are okay. Nothing is going on there.” She tested me for H. Pylori a bacterial infection. Everything was negative. She’s puzzled. I’m puzzled too. She referred me to a gastroenterologist.
I told him my symptoms. He asked me if there was anyone in my family that had colon cancer, and I told him about my uncle who had died several years prior from colon cancer. We scheduled my colonoscopy for July.
I was seriously nervous. I was praying that nothing was going to come back from that test.
When I woke up from the procedure, the doctor was standing next to me, and the look on his face — I will remember that forever — it was like he didn’t know what to say. I was the one to break the ice. I asked, “Am I okay? What’s going on? Is everything looking okay?”
He shook his head no. I lost it. I was like, “Is it something that you can take out? Were you able to biopsy?” He was like, “No, you’re really, really sick. ” I started screaming and they had to go get my husband.
My husband Roysi was frantic too because he’s like, “What’s going on?” The doctor said there was a rectal mass, and it’s pretty big, so we needed to get referred to an oncologist as soon as possible. I said, “Is this something that I’ll be cured? Is it something that we caught in time?” And he’s like, “I can’t give you those details right now, but I can say it’s great that you’re here now. Because had it been any longer, we would be in a more awful situation.”
The nurse told me, “I’m a two-time brain cancer survivor, and I don’t know what it is about you, but I know that you’re going to be a fighter.” I didn’t know what to say.
Of course, when you hear “cancer,” you’re thinking death or that it’s something that you’re not going to survive. That’s what I was thinking. I was 38.
I started thinking about my son — he was only two years old, and my daughter and my husband — I don’t know what life would be if God took me right now. I started praying and asking God, “What do you need me to do?”
I had so many things that I wanted to still accomplish. I have to be here for my children and my husband. I had recently lost my mom and I knew how bad it felt. I know they need me. So I had to fight. I had to.
The next week, I met with my oncologist Dr. Gajjar and had a CT scan and MRI. We found out that I was in the third stage of colorectal cancer. The tumor was the size of a golf ball. The doctor said I would definitely have to have surgery.
I started chemo in October. It made me sick. I was in the emergency room, what felt like every other day. I had major fatigue. I was always sleeping. I lost 40 more pounds. My weight was down to around 140.
My appetite was absolutely horrendous. Once I started chemo, everything tasted like metal. Being on chemo every other week was horrible. I finished chemo right before Christmas.
I remember my doctor was really excited because everything was looking really awesome. So then I started radiation.
I finished radiation in March 2023. I had surgery in June 2023 to remove the rest of the mass.
The surgeon came to speak to me in the hospital, he said, “You look absolutely amazing.” And then that’s when he told me that I was cancer-free. It was so amazing to hear that I didn’t have that tumor anymore.
I had an ostomy bag for about a year. I had it removed in August 2024.
I had three more months of chemo to make sure it didn’t come back. I ended up in and out of the hospital and still losing weight. Even now, after having everything done and my cancer being in remission, I still have the abdominal pain. I still feel like I have to go to the restroom every five minutes and nothing happens as far as my bowels moving. They say that won’t ever go away for me because of where the tumor was.
My son’s name is Royal, he is now 4. My daughter, Zariyah is 14 now.
My son is always asking, “Mommy, are you okay? Do you need anything?” He’s so smart for his age and he’s always checking on me. My daughter, too. She’s never left my side. If she’s not at school, she’s right here next to me. When she’s not with me, she’s texting me or calling me, blowing my phone up even when she’s in class. The teacher is like, “She was on her phone again today. Texting, trying to check on you.”
I told her, “I’m okay. I am going to be fine. I need her to be in school doing her work.”
My husband — we have been together for 20 years — he was such a jewel.
There were times when I was on my knees, and I could call him and he would drop work. His management at Dr. Pepper was overly supportive in making sure that I was okay. Days when I wasn’t, and it was an emergency, he would get home as fast as possible and take me to the emergency room. He would stay there, and he would go to work, and he would come back. He would be super, super tired. And I know that he wanted to be there for me, and I could not tell you enough how amazing that made me feel that he was just right there, in spite of it all. Cleaning the house, mopping the floor. He was the maid. He wore all of the hats when I needed him to.
There were times he neglected himself. One time, he passed out in the emergency room when he was there with me because he didn’t eat. I was emotional, but I was fussing at him at the same time. I’m like, “I can’t be here sick, and you here sick too.” They had to take him to the emergency room. He had to go and get checked out.
I want to tell people: Listen to your body. With the polyps, you don’t know if you have it. And the screening doesn’t start until 45.
It’s something that you don’t see in someone my age, and so I advocate for making sure that you do your checkups and even if something is questionable, if you have a pain in your abdomen — any pain — it could be an ache or something like that. If you are alarmed for any abdominal issues, definitely ask your doctor to get you a colonoscopy even if you’re not 45 yet, because anything could be happening in your body.
If you have a family member that had colon cancer, even if it’s not in your immediate family, advocate for yourself at the doctor’s office and tell them.
I’m happy that I went to the doctor, and I did not wait.
Cancer is something that you can’t predict. We only have one life to live. So if my journey can help somebody else, then I’m here for it, because we all deserve to be here and enjoy life.
I’m enjoying spending time with my kids. Traveling — and eating crawfish again.
Click here for more information about colorectal cancer, including signs, risk factors, screenings and treatment methods. Read Dr. Gajjar’s advice and learn why early detection is so important.
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