A Mom, a Survivor, and Now a Warrior

When Mindy Hylton went in for a routine well-woman exam seven years ago, she felt great. She was 35, happily married, and in the best shape of her life. She’d recently started watching American Ninja Warrior, a show where athletes compete in a series of extreme obstacle courses, and she was determined to compete on the show herself. Hylton had a background in cheerleading and gymnastics but was a little rusty, so she started going to the gym to practice.

It was safe to say, as she walked into her doctor’s appointment, that she had a lot of things on her mind, but having a child was not one of them. “My doctor asked me that day if I wanted to have kids, and I said ‘Yes, at some point in the future,’” says Hylton. “He sent me home with all of these brochures and prenatal vitamins, and I showed them to my husband and we both laughed. We didn’t think we were ready.”

Hylton had been given both a Pap test and an HPV test, a combination known as co-testing. While women should start getting regular Pap tests at age 21, once they turn 30 they should get co-tested. According to Dr. Jessica Shepherd, chief medical officer at Verywell Health, “HPV is very common among women in their 20s. When you’re young, your immune system is still very responsive, and it’s usually strong enough to thwart the virus on its own.” Since our immune systems get less effective as we age, doctors should include an HPV test for women starting at age 30: “With a pap test, we look at the cells on the cervix to see if there are any abnormalities that could lead to cancer. The HPV test determines if a woman has been exposed to the HPV virus.”

Shortly after Hylton’s appointment, she received news that would change her life forever — she had cervical cancer. The very next day, she was at the hospital for a biopsy. Because Hylton’s cancer had been caught at such an early stage, the surgeon was able to remove all of the cancerous tissue, but her type of cervical cancer has a high rate of returning. “I was told that if we wanted to have kids, we should start trying as soon as possible. I didn’t give it a second thought — it was the kick in the pants that I needed. I threw my American Ninja Warrior plan out the window, and I became totally focused on getting healthy and having a baby.” Six months after her biopsy, Hylton was given the go-ahead by her doctor to try for a baby. Two months after that, she was pregnant. “I know how lucky I am,” she says.

Hylton may have been lucky, but she was also smart. Because she’d been so diligent about getting screened, her doctor could remove her cancer before it spread, and she was able to go on and have a safe and healthy pregnancy. According to Dr. Shepherd, “Cervical cancer can cause fertility issues, but if we can get on top of it from an early stage, those issues are much less likely. We have procedures that can fine-tune the focus on cancer cells and eliminate them. If it’s caught early, cervical cancer is one of the only cancers that’s considered curable.”

In 2016, Hylton and her husband welcomed a baby girl, who they named Addley. Seven months later, Hylton made the decision to have a hysterectomy, a procedure that would guarantee that her cancer would not return, but also meant she would not be able to carry another child. “I was completely at peace with my decision,” says Hylton. “If we decided we wanted more kids, we could adopt. The driving factor for me at that point was to stay healthy for my daughter.” In just two years, Hylton had gone from athlete to cancer survivor to new mom. Now she would be undergoing major surgery.

Despite these enormous life changes, Hylton has remained remarkably optimistic. “I really believe in the power of positivity,” she says. “It helps a lot if you have a support system around you that you know will also stay positive.” Hylton has also taken an active role in encouraging other women to get screened for cervical cancer, and advocating for cervical cancer survivors. “I’m always happy to talk to anybody who’s going through what I went through,” she says.

In addition to her own positive attitude, Hylton had her daughter to keep her grounded. “She is the center of my universe,” Hylton says. As her life began to return back to normal, she started to revisit the idea of competing on American Ninja Warrior. “I hadn’t been active in so long,” she says, “and setting that goal really helped to push me.” Just before the audition tapes were due, Hylton’s life hit another roadblock: her husband wanted a divorce. “It was like he threw a wrench into my life,” she says. Once again, Hylton decided she would have to put her American Ninja Warrior dream on the back burner until a friend reached out to remind her why she wanted to try competing again in the first place: To show her daughter how strong she was. Two days before the deadline, she submitted her audition tape.

Three months later, Hylton got a call telling her that she’d qualified. “It was exhilarating,” she says. She competed on season 11 of the show in her hometown of Atlanta, making it to the fourth obstacle. “It felt awesome to finally get to do this at age 40. It made me feel so empowered.”

When Hylton reflects on her life, she highlights everything she’s grateful for: her positive support system, her health, the opportunities she’s been given, and most of all, her daughter. When she thinks back to that routine doctor’s visit when she was 35, she still marvels at how lucky she feels that her cancer was caught so early, and she strongly encourages other women to get screened. “If you’re behind on your Pap and HPV screenings, don’t wait,” she says. “I was completely healthy when I was diagnosed. I had no pain, I had no symptoms. There wasn’t any reason for me to think that there would be anything wrong. The only reason they caught it was because I kept on top of my regular screenings. If I had waited, the cancer could have spread and I might not have been able to keep my cervix. I might not have been able to have my daughter. And I couldn’t imagine my life without her.”