Community shows support for Chelsea resident with stage IV breast cancer

Update: Kristi Ingram died on Nov. 24, 2017. Since her death, the community has honored her by flying the Chelsea flag at half mast, presenting the Ingram family with donations and gifts, and other means of support.

The Chelsea Baseball Club’s uniforms look a little different this season. Rather than bear the Chelsea “C,” they have three letters — KBI — the initials of Kristi Barker Ingram, who is fighting stage IV breast cancer.

Kristi Ingram’s stage IV breast cancer diagnosis is not new, but many people in the community have only recently heard about it. She was first diagnosed with breast cancer in the spring of 2010, following a routine mammogram.

“It was the first diagnosis, she had chemo, she had surgery, and then it’s gone and back to life as we knew it before,” said David Ingram, her husband and a member of the Chelsea City Council.

Everything went along as normal for a few years, he said, until Kristi Ingram felt a pain in her chest and sternum in 2014.

“The doctor’s exact words were, ‘This is not going to kill you, but you will die with it,’” David Ingram said. And when breast cancer returns, even if it’s in a different part of the body, it is still breast cancer. When it returns, it is stage IV cancer.

“Once that happens, you never stop treatment,” he said. “Once you get the diagnosis she had, it’s treatment forever because there’s no cure.”

Treatment mainly takes place when someone is showing symptoms, David Ingram said, and for a while when Kristi Ingram underwent hormone therapy and clinical trials, they did not have to change up their routine very much, and they chose not to tell many people about the stage IV cancer.

“People just didn’t know because it wasn’t impacting our daily life,” he said. “We kind of swept it under the rug.”

But in 2016, her symptoms started getting worse, and the cancer was spreading to other areas. The cancer progressed in her bones and was found in her liver, and she started to undergo radiation in December 2016 and again this summer. It progressed in her brain in April, and then again in her liver in August.

The treatment has gotten more aggressive, with four rounds of chemotherapy — once every four weeks — and they will have to repeat scans in mid-October. But through it all, she has remained strong.

“Throughout all of the treatments and trials, she remains positive and upbeat. She wants to remain strong for me and the kids,” David Ingram said. “She still goes to watch [our daughter] Kinlee cheer at middle school football games. She still goes to [our son] Dawson’s baseball games and wants to enjoy his senior year.”

Due to the cancer’s progression, David Ingram said they decided to be more open about it, something they had not done before.

“It’s been a pretty tough year, and it’s to the point that we wanted people to know what she’s going through and to know more about it,” he said.

They have seen amazing community support, David Ingram said, and a lot of people are surprised to hear this has been ongoing for nearly eight years. Over the last three months, he said, people have brought over meals, helped get their kids from point A to point B and offered other means of support.

And last week, one segment of the community unveiled a new way to support the Ingram family — the Chelsea Baseball Club.

David Ingram has been heavily involved in CBC since his son, who is now a senior, was on the first 12U team. When some of the 11U players heard about Kristi Ingram’s cancer, they wanted to help out. A few years ago, their team wore pink shirts for Kristi, said coach and CBC board member R.J. Hughes, and this year they asked to do it again.

“They came up with the idea. They wanted to do something special,” Hughes said. “We started out where we were going to do it with our team, and then it just grew to all 10 teams in the Chelsea Baseball Club.”

None of the teams hesitated, Hughes said, and they premiered the shirts at games the week of Sept. 17. The design was created by Ron Pharr and features a pink ribbon and the initials KBI in the center. Chelsea High School athletic director and head baseball coach Michael Stallings, also an 11U coach, has also helped lead the support through CBC.

“I was excited and really humbled by the love that all the teams have shown,” Hughes said. “It just kind of puts everything in perspective.”

And the chance to support the Ingram family is expanding. The shirts are now for sale for $20 each, with all proceeds going to the Ingrams and whatever medical or other costs they have. In just a week, they have sold about 150 shirts, Hughes said, and his goal is to sell more than 1,000.

“The community loves the family, and the support has been overwhelming and continues to grow as the word gets out,” Hughes said. “I hope it brightens their [the Ingrams’] day a little bit.”

For CBC participants, David Ingram said he knows the coaches are explaining to their athletes what the shirts mean, a lesson he hopes they can continue to carry off the field.

“For the kids in the program, this is much more than a shirt, but something to play for, something to think about to give them that extra energy and drive when they don’t think they can do something,” David Ingram said. “How could you give up when you are playing for someone like Kristi? It has definitely given me a different perspective on life. I am more driven now than I have ever been to make a difference in everything I do for her.”

And the support has been amazing for their family, he said, and they are grateful for it.

 “It’s humbling for her [Kristi] for all these people to come out and show this kind of support,” he said. “But that’s how the people of Chelsea are, and that’s what’s so neat about this city. It’s pretty common in Chelsea for people to do that.”

Anyone interested in purchasing a shirt can order them through the Chelsea Baseball Club Facebook page or through the email address CBCHornets1@gmail.com. The shirts will be for sale at least through the month of October.