Running Toward Recovery:
Sy Smith’s Unexpected Journey Through Breast Cancer
By R.L. Witter
Sy Smith—to see her is to understand the meaning of beauty and to hear her sing… JUST WOW! She’s a singer, musician, wife, and breast cancer survivor. Her bright, open demeanor allowed her to detail her very recent experience with the disease, but first, a little background. “I think I’ve always been a musician. I started playing piano probably around four or five by ear, then begged for piano lessons.”she recalled. “I was a late bloomer when it came to singing. It was just something that sort of fell into my lap because I am a songwriter.”
Smith received her bachelor’s of Science degree in psychology with a minor in music therapy from Howard University. Her mother, two sisters, and a cousin also attended Howard. Her brother was on the football coaching staff. She began singing backup for artists like Brandy, Usher, Eric Benet, Meshell Ndgeocello, and spent more than a year on the road with Whitney Houston.
Always health conscious, she neither drinks nor smokes, eats well, and runs every day. So when someone named Dr. Khan reminded her on her healthcare app it was time for a routine mammogram, she complied.
“We did the mammogram in April 2024. When I noticed a reaction from the radiologist…I knew right then something was abnormal,” Smith explained. From there, it was a whirlwind of doctors and emotions. A male breast specialist who “was sort of patronizing” accused her of overreacting. “It made me feel small, it took away my power in that moment.”
After another mammogram and a biopsy, off to Europe she went for the month of May, singing to audiences of thousands while in the back of her mind thinking, “I probably have a full blown carcinoma.” She returned home and on June 5th, nearly two months to the day after her mammogram, her healthcare app gave her the results before her doctor could. “It was really frustrating, the way the diagnosis came. I was seeing it before I could hear it from a human being.” Referred to another breast specialist—a Black woman, Smith says, “She was amazing. She laid out the next steps: genetic blood testing, an MRI, and hormone testing. I told her, ‘I got gigs, I got shows. What’s the timeline for this?’” She received two options— a lumpectomy with radiation five times per week for five or six weeks, or a mastectomy with reconstruction and no radiation. “I told her, ‘Just give me the mastectomy.’”
Following a meeting with the surgeon on July 11th (her wedding anniversary), the healthcare app notified her of the date for surgery— July 31st. Except for the doctors, only her husband knew. She had to call her parents, have her business partner cancel a few shows, and call her cousin whose mother had died from breast cancer. For everyone else, texts explained the situation and asked for space to have her surgery and recover.
The fourth day after the six-hour surgery that removed her breast and used tissue from another part of her body to reconstruct it—which broke her 341-day running streak— Sy Smith walked a mile. By day 12 it was two miles and she began testing her voice. In 3.5 weeks she boarded a flight headed for London to perform, to sing. “It took a couple of weeks of practicing but my voice is back.”
While recovering, Smith made a bold decision. “I made a video and went public because I didn’t want anybody speculating online.”The reaction proved to be nothing but love. “People called and prayed. My cousin set up a meal train so that my husband wouldn’t have to cook every night. “One person gave $1,000 and I didn’t even know he cared.”
What Smith learned from the ordeal is this: “Sometimes God is preparing you for things that you don’t know are gonna happen, and you don’t understand why you’re doing what you’re doing—I started running because we were in a pandemic and I needed something to do that didn’t require a mask. I didn’t know that running was preparing me for a recovery so much easier than most and so good for me mentally. I still don’t know who Dr Khan is—who sent that first message saying ‘It’s time to go get your mammogram’—but whoever you are, Dr Khan, thank you!”