Tommy Thompson Shares Story of His Family's Struggle with Breast Cancer
WOODRUFF: The American Cancer Society estimates that this year, 211,240 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Many more people will be deeply affected by the disease. CNN's Paula Zahn recently sat down with Tommy Thompson, most recently the nation's top health official but also a husband and a father. He was most vulnerable when the women in his life were diagnosed with breast cancer.</s>TOMMY THOMPSON, FORMER HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: You immediately start crying, because it's a very emotional time when you have your first meeting with your wife and the doctor that she has breast cancer.</s>PAULA ZAHN, HOST, "PAULA ZAHN NOW" (voice-over): When Tommy Thompson first learned his wife Sue Ann had breast cancer, he knew how deadly her diagnosis could be. His mother-in-law died only six months after she was diagnosed in 1982.</s>THOMPSON: Then immediately you think, "Well, Mother died of cancer. Does this mean I only have six more months? Eight months? Or is it -- is she going to survive?" It's -- it's a real gut reaction, you know, of fear and anger that takes over your -- your emotions at that point in time.</s>ZAHN (on camera): Did you ever let Sue Ann know how scared you were?</s>THOMPSON: Oh, sure. She could tell.</s>ZAHN: It's hard to hold that back. But don't you have to be honest?</s>THOMPSON: Well, I'm Irish and I'm very emotional, as you can tell. And you talk about these things, they're very -- they're very personal to me, and I get very teary-eyed.</s>ZAHN (voice-over): Sue Ann Thompson was diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine mammogram in 1994. Tommy Thompson was then governor of Wisconsin.</s>THOMPSON: And you know so little and you want to do so much. And you feel just like you're paralyzed, that you can't reach out and say, you know, "Stop this! I'm the governor of the state of Wisconsin! You should not be able to do this!" But you can't. You're almost helpless. And that was a very difficult thing for me.</s>ZAHN (on camera): Your reaction was fairly typical to other men I've spoken with who've had wives diagnosed with cancer. There's a bit of a selfish reaction first, and then they go through the stage where they said they get angry. And then they do everything in their power to make sure their wife lives. Is that sort of the path you went through?</s>THOMPSON: There's no question about it. It is a very difficult and trying time, because your wife needs so much support. And then you, of course, want to support her, but you're also wondering what about all these other things that she's been doing and how are you going to be able to fill the void and take care of it? So it has somewhat of a selfish motive at first, but then it turns into something which brings, I believe, in most cases, the family closer together in a better family unit.</s>ZAHN (voice-over): It was an experience that prompted Sue Ann Thompson to create the Wisconsin Women's Health Foundation in 1997, a place for women who need support and information about their own health. It became a family mission when the Thompson's youngest daughter, Tommi, started working there in 1999. But little did the Thompsons realize that just five years later, Tommi would face her own health care crisis. At just 33 years old, she also was diagnosed with breast cancer. Tommy Thompson, the father and seasoned politician, was rocked to his core.</s>THOMPSON: You always believe, you know, your children, you know, are going to be healthy and are going to be able to carry on. And why should a child, you know, that's early 30s, come down with breast cancer? First, I was governor when my wife came down with it. Now I'm secretary of health and human services, the head of all of the doctors and medical care, and I can't do anything about it. Why am I failing my daughter in this -- in this regard? Why haven't we been able to find a cure? It was one of not madness or being angry, it was just being upset and frustrated that we haven't been able to come full circle to find a cure for breast cancer.</s>ZAHN (on camera): Did you ever share your anger with your daughter, Tommy?</s>THOMPSON: Well, not really, because, you know, your wife was there and you thought, sure, you've won it all. You've been able to beat this disease, and she's been now cancer-free for 11 years. And then you get hit, you know, almost in the stomach by the knowledge that your daughter is coming down with breast cancer. It's very difficult.</s>ZAHN: Were you afraid of losing your daughter?</s>THOMPSON: Oh, yes.</s>ZAHN (voice-over): Perhaps the most difficult thing for Tommy Thompson, the father, was helping his daughter deal with having her breast removed.</s>THOMPSON: You're the father and you've raised this wonderful child. And now she's going to go through this surgery and she's going to lose her breast. And it's very traumatic for her, because she was a single girl at the time. Subsequently, she got married. So she was going through all kinds of pains of anguish and depression. And all you can do is reassure her that -- that she's going to be just as beautiful as ever.</s>ZAHN (on camera): It was very hard for you. Wasn't it?</s>THOMPSON: Yes, it is. Very hard.</s>ZAHN: But, there has to be a certain degree of honesty in that conversation, right? An acknowledgement that physically are you changed.</s>THOMPSON: Yes.</s>ZAHN (voice-over): Ultimately Thompson's daughter decided to have the mastectomy. That was followed by three months of chemotherapy. Today, she is one year cancer-free and works with her mother to educate women about taking responsibility for their own health, a lesson she learned the hard way.</s>THOMPSON: She asked, when she went through her annual physical, to have a mammogram.</s>ZAHN: And she was young.</s>THOMPSON: She was young. And the doctors said, no, she didn't need it. And she said, "Well, I've got it in my family. I would like is to have it." And they talked her out of it. And when she went in for her physical, said the insurance wouldn't pay for it and she was too young. And she didn't need to worry about it. And then so about a couple weeks later, I believe, or a month later, she was examining herself, and she found the lump in her breast. And she was quite concerned about it. But she said, "Well, that's impossible. The doctors examined me and said there was nothing there a month ago or two weeks ago." And -- and so she went in to work, and she was thinking to herself that her job is to tell women when they find the lump to go get it examined. And she says, "Here I am, ignoring my own advice to people around Wisconsin." So she made an appointment. And the doctor examined her again, and they took some tests and they said, "Nothing is wrong. You don't have cancer." And so she was relieved. But they said, "Just to be on the safe side, we'll take a biopsy. But we're absolutely certain you don't have breast cancer." And they -- and so they took the biopsy and, you know, Sue Ann and Tommi and I went out and celebrated, you know, after the examination that she was not going to have cancer, or didn't have cancer. Then the biopsy came back and said it was positive. So it was unreal.</s>ZAHN: So if she had not pushed herself...</s>THOMPSON: She had not pushed herself.</s>ZAHN: ... she may not be alive today.</s>THOMPSON: That is true.</s>ZAHN: Her cancer was that aggressive.</s>THOMPSON: It was very aggressive.</s>ZAHN: But it was caught in time. Thompson's personal experience motivated the then-secretary of health and human services to change the national guidelines for mammogram screening. As a result, women are now encouraged to go for their first mammogram when they turn 40, not 50. And despite having stepped down as the secretary almost three months ago, Thompson is still an outspoken advocate for the cause, especially the role men must play in fighting the disease. In his own way, he's a survivor, a survivor of horrible experiences that he says have made ham better man, a better husband, a better father.</s>THOMPSON: You have to focus on the person that has the cancer and reassure them. By reassuring them, or that person, you strengthen yourself and you strengthen the whole family. So you just got to put aside all your inner thoughts and concerns, your anger and your fears, and really resolve yourself to doing everything you can for the wife, the daughter, the husband, or the son.</s>ZAHN (on camera): Well, I personally want to thank you for raising the awareness of the importance of self-detection and for opening your heart up to us today.</s>THOMPSON: I'm sorry I got teary-eyed.</s>ZAHN: You made me get there, too. Any of us who have ever been through it.</s>THOMPSON: I want to thank you, because this is so important. And if I can just leave one -- one bit of advice, that until we find the cure, get your mammograms, get your tests, and take care of your body.</s>WOODRUFF: Former health and human services secretary, Tommy Thompson, a rare look inside the life of a public official. And tune in this Saturday afternoon for an encore presentation of Paula's special on breast cancer, "Survivor Stories." That's at 4 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. I'll be back later today at 3:30 Eastern for "INSIDE POLITICS." And then at 5 p.m. on "WOLF BLITZER REPORTS." Thanks for watching NEWS FROM CNN. I'm Judy woodruff. "LIVE FROM" with Kyra Phillips is next.