These days, you will find Joey Hagenson of Purvis donating his time as a volunteer at the Forrest General Cancer Center, welcoming patients and their family members at the front doors or assisting patients back to see their doctor. No matter what he’s doing, it’s all in the name of love.
Joey has a personality that precedes him. Extremely friendly, vivacious, energetic, uplifting, and kind, he knows what it’s like to be in the shoes of the patients and their family members waiting for their loved one’s name to be called. Volunteering at the Cancer Center was something he and his late wife, Dina, had talked about doing together when she got better. But for Dina, that day never came. She passed away in May of this year after a valiant fight with her own cancer, a glioblastoma, the most common form of brain cancer.
Because things had not worked out as they planned, Joey decided he wanted to honor Dina’s memory and those at the Cancer Center who had helped them by doing this himself. “Even though she was going through treatment here at the Cancer Center, she still had kindness in her heart to want to give back,” said Kecia Jones-Harris, Cancer Center director. “The main thing patients need is a little encouragement. When you have to come to one place 40 times for treatment, it gets dreary. Sometimes if somebody will just give them a kind word along the way that really helps. And Joey is a good conversationalist, so he will be great.”
Dina’s death in May is still fresh for her husband. The couple dated for 12 years before marrying in July 2020. In early November of 2020, Dina got sick. When she didn’t get better in a day or two, they sought medical treatment. After about 30 minutes, a doctor came out and told Joey about the brain tumor, the size of two large fists, which had already started pushing Dina’s brain to one side. The couple had no idea. Dina was flown to Jackson. “About 9 p.m., a surgeon came out and told me if they didn’t do surgery that night, my wife wouldn’t be with us in the morning and asked what I wanted to do,” remembers Joey. “I asked him when he could get started.” Ninety-five percent of the tumor was removed and Dina spent four days in ICU. At the height of COVID, Joey was the only one who could be with her. Dina then went through radiation. Standing at just five feet and weighing 100 pounds, chemotherapy was out of the question. It was just too much for Dina’s petite body to handle.
Despite going through surgery, cancer treatments and all that accompanied the disease, Dina had a great attitude and even while going through treatment, would bounce through the Cancer Center doors dancing. For Joey, the front doors of the Cancer Center is where it all starts. “When you come every day, you don’t know the names, but rather the faces,” he said. It turns out that seven of the people in the waiting room were from the Bassfield and Prentiss areas, where the Hagensons were residing at the time. “They were doing the same thing we were doing,” he said. “We’d meet every morning. It was sad, but comforting, because you knew people who were going through the same thing you were.”
Dina’s mantra from the start was, “it is what it is,” and she dealt with it. “We had fun together,” said Joey. “There were three things she didn’t want to happen. She didn’t want to be cold, she didn’t want to be eaten by a bear, and she didn’t want to drown. I took care of my girl,” and he still is.
During her healthier days, the Hagensons, who were avid fishermen, enjoyed spending time together on their boat, Our Time, off the coast of Bay St. Louis catching a variety of fish – from flounder to red fish. “We had fun together,” said Joey, “and Dina didn’t want or expect any help reeling in her catch. It was during these days that Dina’s doctors and nurses were on the receiving end of the catch of the day.
With the radiation she was taking, doctors gave Dina a little more than six months to live. “We rocked along, started fishing again, went to the mountains, Natchez, Vicksburg; wherever she wanted to go, we went,” Joey said. Having worked for USDA for 32 years, Joey had built up more than two-and-a-half years of sick time. “When she got sick, I told them I wasn’t coming back to work; my priorities had changed.”
At some point and time, little hotspots started showing up in the same area and a second surgery was scheduled to remove two egg-size masses. Approximately 99 percent of the tumor was removed and radiation started again. Dina also wore an Optune, a device equipped with electrodes worn on the head to help shrink tumors. “It doesn’t cure cancer, but helps slow it down, which it did,” said Joey. Things would be good for a little while and then more hotspots. Dina went through a chemical trial in Jackson, which did nothing, and then through a trial at the FGH Cancer Center, to no avail.
“But she never gave up until the last few days,” Joey said.
“The last two-and-a-half years, I lived here at the Cancer Center. This is a very special place. We made connections here and became a big family. Dina loved them all. That’s the reason I’m sitting in this chair. I’m going to honor her memory and for the folks who helped and were so good to us. I’m going to follow through with our plan to volunteer.”
If you would like to serve as a volunteer at the Forrest General Cancer Center, contact Vicky Buxton, director of Volunteer & Guest Services, 601-288-4214, or visit www.forresthealth.org
