Cancer survivor Roger Hankey has a message for any man who thinks all those pink awareness ribbons only apply to women.
“Check yourself, your breasts, your chest, whatever you want to call it,” says Roger, who owns an RV park in Fannin County. “It’s well worth it to save your life.”
Now cancer-free, the 70-year-old Wylie man is grateful his disease was found early, with help from his wife and the team at Methodist Richardson Medical Center, where he had a mastectomy in fall 2025.
“If not for Vicki, I wouldn’t be here,” he says of his wife. “And my doctors and nurses — angels on Earth. I was just very fortunate in my circumstances.”
“I can relate to a lot of women out there now,” he adds.
‘THAT IS NOT NORMAL’
A month before his cancer was diagnosed, an older cousin shared a bombshell about his own health with Roger.
“We were sitting there talking, and he goes, ‘By the way, I had a mastectomy,’” Roger recalls. “I said, ‘You’re kidding me.’ He’s stage 4, so he wasn’t as lucky as I was.”
About 1 in 755 men will face a breast cancer diagnosis during their life, compared with 1 in 8 women. But because of a lack of awareness and screening, breast cancer is often found at a later stage in men.
His cousin’s news shook Roger, especially a few weeks later when he rubbed his arm across his chest one morning, and it came away damp and cold.
“I thought, where the hell is that coming from, and I assumed it was sweat,” he remembers. “But no, I had a leaky nipple.”
Vicki knew right away that Roger needed to see a doctor. Nipple discharge can be benign for women, but it’s always a warning sign for men.
“As soon as he told me, I was on the phone,” she says. “That is not normal.”
NEEDED A MASTECTOMY
A mammogram and ultrasound would follow, along with two biopsies that ultimately led Roger’s doctors to refer him to Jenevieve Hughes, MD, breast surgeon on the medical staff at Methodist Richardson.
“It’s so important to be paying attention to our bodies, both men and women,” she says. “I don’t expect my patients to figure out exactly what a new symptom or change means; I just want them to bring it to my attention. It’s my job to try to get to the bottom of it.”
That’s precisely what Dr. Hughes did: She found four small areas of invasive ductal carcinoma in one of Roger’s breasts, as well as a larger 7-centimeter lump that was precancerous, known as ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS.
“There was a lot more DCIS than we expected,” Dr. Hughes says. “That was the reason he needed to ultimately have a mastectomy.”
The prospect of losing a breast barely fazed Roger: “Take it off. I don’t need it anyway.”
“They did offer to tattoo me a new nipple,” he says with a laugh, “but I don’t know.”
TICKLED BY ‘ALL THE PINK’
Almost a year after his surgery, Roger has a new appreciation for the screening women go through every year or two.
“I was just sitting with a room full of women this morning getting a mammogram,” Vicki says, “and they were all just in shock at what Roger had gone through.”
Dr. Hughes says she often apologizes to her male patients who may feel out of place with the pink color scheme in her office. But Roger always takes it in stride, she says.
“He has found humor in ‘all the pink’ that is associated with breast cancer,” she says. “I think his wife helps with that, too. She accompanies him to every visit, and it’s great to see how much they care about each other.”
Roger knows how lucky he is, both because he was diagnosed in the cancer’s early stages and because he had a partner push him to do what needed to be done.
“Without her, I don’t know what condition I would be in,” he says. “I won’t let her leave, so she’s trapped.”
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