Juanita Black got the news no woman wants to hear at a mobile mammogram unit at her church’s annual health fair in 2013. She had a tumor. 

“I had felt it for two years during self-examinations and told my doctors there’s something there,” Black said. “I never missed an annual exam, but at the health fair was the first time it appeared on a mammogram.” 

Further examination found it to be cancerous. 

While she awaited treatment, a chance encounter led Black to get involved in the Exercise and Cancer Integrative Therapy (ExCITE) program at Henry Ford Health System. 

“I was at my computer working on my Bible study word puzzle when an ad popped up for ExCITE. It felt divinely ordered.” 

ExCITE, a joint effort between oncologists and the Heart & Vascular Institute, provides individualized exercise programs for cancer patients and survivors, permitting them access to Henry Ford fitness facilities at a reduced cost. It’s the only program of its kind in Michigan. 

“I was at my best health when I was in that program,” Black said. “Dr. Dennis Kerrigan, who runs the program, became an example for me of what you can accomplish as an exercise physiologist. The exercise program really strengthened me to be prepared for what I was about to go through with treatment.” 

Not only does regular exercise relieve stress and improve mood, studies show exercise can decrease the side effects of cancer and cancer treatments, such as nausea, fatigue, neuropathy, and reduce the risk of recurrence for survivors. 

Black never forgot the sense of empowerment that Kerrigan and the ExCite program instilled in her. The experience inspired her to become a fitness instructor so that she might help others in turn. 

Now a certified group fitness instructor and personal trainer at Mort Harris Recreation, Black is pursuing her master’s in exercise and sports science at the Wayne State University College of Education with aspirations of becoming a clinical exercise physiologist. 

“10 years since my first diagnosis, and I am still not cancer free,” she said, “but I consider it a blessing, because it pushes me to find ways to put it in check. That’s why I’m in graduate school. My master’s will position me to get into the clinical environment.” 

Life-long learner

It isn’t Black’s first stint in higher education. 

“I started in the construction industry as a secretary in 1980, and with the help of my boss, enrolled at Lawrence Tech where I earned my bachelor’s in civil engineering with a concentration in construction management.”

She later became a project engineer and then a project coordinator, working for construction companies that played a part in WSU’s built environment. Her interactions with WSU Facilities Planning & Management led to an opportunity in which she was hired on as a project manager in design services and oversaw the construction of buildings such as the Ghafari and Atchison residence halls.

Black’s construction career came to a halt when her health declined, but it gave her the opportunity to do something she’d been thinking about for some time: go to graduate school. 

“It is my full intention to demonstrate that cancer can't win,” she said. “That's why I call it ‘can’tcer.’ I don't say ‘can,’ because I'm not giving it permission.”

The cancer isn’t slowing her down. 

In addition to her studies and fitness instruction at Mort Harris, Black has run construction training programs through WSU Facilities Planning & Management for vocational-tech students from Detroit Public Schools. She’s spoken to her WSU instructors’ undergraduate classes about her personal journey with fitness. And she even now runs the annual health fair at her church. 

At a recent check-up, her oncologist told Black, who is 69, she could easily see Black living another twenty years due to her commitment to exercise and healthy living. 

“It’s an exciting time for me to be an example to people of how cancer does not have to be a death sentence,” she said, “you can have cancer and still live a very full life.”

Her horizons are broad. Black hopes to return to facilities design and construction and continue her fitness instruction outside her 9-to-5. Once she earns her degree, she wants to work in a cardiovascular rehabilitation center or hospital as an exercise physiologist. 

“So, kind of an awesome way to plan your post-retirement-age career.”