JTC 24: Cancer Survivor, Mother of Four Earns Master's Degree

When you give birth to a child, you're a mother. When you beat breast cancer, you're a survivor, and when you go back to school, you're a student.

When you do all three while holding a full-time job? Then you're Precious Thompson.

When she took on a job as a dispatcher in 2009 for the University of Mississippi Physical Plant Department, Thompson never thought it would lead her to the graduation stage. But this May, she will graduate for the second time in as many years and receive her master's degree in social work.

"When I walk across that stage, I will do just like I did in 2022 and raise my hand and say, 'Thank you, Jesus'," said Thompson, who recently celebrated her 50th birthday. "Because it's not easy working a full-time job, going to school and raising Tray, Chelsea, Jordan and Naomi. It's not easy at all.

"But you know what? You just have to have that determination to keep going."

After transferring to the Small Business Development Center in 2010, Thompson met Doug Gurley, who was then the center's director. Right away, Thompson said Gurley began telling her to go back to school and finish her bachelor's.

"He said, 'I want you to start a class. I'm not asking you. I'm telling you to start taking classes,'" she said. "And I started. If it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have done it."

When Gurley describes what first stood out about Thompson, the word "bubbly" comes up often.

"Bubbly – that's Precious," he said, laughing from his porch swing in Arkansas, where he's since retired. "Precious was something. We put Precious at the front desk because that's who you met when you walked in. We'd have people come in nervous, but by the time I got up front, they'd be laughing and smiling.

"Precious could calm people down and make them feel welcome. She was that kind of person. Just bubbly."

Gurley said he encouraged all of his staff members to go back to school, and that he was so proud of the ones who did.

"I remember talking to Precious about it and saying 'You need to get into college. You're here. The university will let you take six hours, and we'll let you go,'" he said. "I know that 120 hours for your undergrad looks like a big hill, but over the years, you'll make it.

"And she did. If anybody could, well, it'd be Precious."

Regardless of your situation, where you came from, your race, your religion, your background – anything – you can be successful at any age. You just cannot give up. God is good!"

So, over the next 13 years, Thompson drove 50 miles each way from her hometown of Calhoun City to work at the Small Business Development Center and to earn her degree. Along the way, she discovered her passion for social work.

In a conversation with her adviser, Drew Lefmann, she learned that social work was a much broader field than she'd originally thought.

"My idea was that social work was going into homes and taking people's kids," she said. "He said, 'That's what everybody thinks, but it's so much more than that.

"You have hospital social workers, which help patients get breast pumps and medical equipment for their homes. You have prison social workers, school social workers. I mean, they're everywhere.'

"That changed my whole view of social work."

In 2015, only days after having her regular mammogram, Thompson noticed a painful lump in her breast and immediately called her doctor.

"At first, they told me, 'Oh, you're just sore from the mammogram; give it a few weeks,'" she said. "I went the next day."

She was right. Thompson was diagnosed with breast cancer, underwent chemotherapy and radiation, donated her ponytail to Locks of Love and still had to come home every day and be a mother to her four children.

But she didn't do it alone.

Her sister, Victoria Jennings, went with her to every appointment. Staff members from across campus donated more than 400 hours of their leave time so that she did not lose her position. A local charity, Calhoun Cares, gave her a $25 gas card to fill up her tank each time she had an appointment or treatment.

"All of that made me want to start the Power of Pink Walk," she said. "Because they did so much for me."

Since she rang the bell that declared her cancer-free in 2015, Thompson has been a steadfast supporter of breast cancer awareness. She's spoken with survivors and recently diagnosed men and women, organized walks and charity events, and been an advocate in the African American community, where breast cancer is sometimes seen as a taboo subject.

"And do you know what?" she said "So many people would inbox me and tell me that they had felt something, and they haven't been to a doctor, but that after seeing my story, they're going to go.

"When I started blogging and sharing my story, eight people told me that they found cancer, and that they wouldn't be here if they hadn't and gone to the doctor early. I just can't believe that."

Thompson hopes to use her master's degree in social work and her experience as a cancer survivor to help others. She works for the Calhoun County School District, but said she hopes to one day work in a cancer center, helping people like her navigate their diagnosis.

"People always saw the Precious on the outside," she said. "The Precious on the outside was the Precious that was strong and brave and courageous and always dressed nice, even if it was Walmart stuff.

"People didn't know the Precious on the inside. They didn't know that she slept on the couch for eight years so that her children had beds.

"I just want people to know that regardless of your situation, where you came from, your race, your religion, your background – anything – you can be successful at any age. You just cannot give up. God is good!"

See more photos from Precious Thompson's Journey to Commencement