By Sierra Marling, HD Media
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Jessica Carter remembers the moment she discovered she had breast cancer. It was a carefree moment, a normal evening in April 2024 where she was listening to music and preparing for a shower while the kids were gone.
“I felt a lump,” said Carter, 44, of Charleston. “It stopped me in my tracks. I knew.”
To combat her aggressive cancer, Carter underwent 24 weeks of chemotherapy, then surgery, and six weeks of radiation sessions. While she received excellent in-state treatment, she faced challenges, including a three-month wait at a local cancer treatment center before finding an earlier appointment at Charleston Area Medical Center.
“Three months to get an appointment for something that’s been identified as aggressive … I mean, it was just crazy,” she said. “I just imagine a lot of people go through that. They discover something’s wrong, and then you just have to wait.”
As a single mother of two, Carter also struggled with financial assistance.
“What I have discovered is that West Virginia is one of the few states that there’s just no infrastructure via nonprofit, via the government, to help you. If you look at Ohio, Kentucky or Virginia — there are multiple nonprofits set up to help in some manner. There’s all sorts of things that you can take advantage of, and there simply wasn’t in West Virginia at all,” she said.
During treatment, Carter’s energy bills skyrocketed, in part because she needed an air conditioning unit to combat a treatment side effect. When she looked for financial relief from Appalachian Power, she found they provided assistance programs for Ohio and Virginia but none for West Virginia.