Shameka Woodley learned she was pregnant on Jan. 20. The next day, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

The guest speaker at an event Turlington Woods students staged Friday against the disease, Woodley said she found a lump when she examined herself at the behest of her sister, a breast cancer survivor.

Woodley’s diagnosis was triple-negative breast cancer, which limited treatment options, she told her hushed audience at the alternative school.

“It’s an aggressive tumor, and it grows very fast,” she said.

Woodley couldn’t begin chemotherapy during early pregnancy, and doctors suggested abortion.

“It told them I didn’t want to do that,” she said.

She discussed the issue with her husband and pastor. “My pastor said, ‘No, you are not going to get rid of that baby,’” according to Woodley.

The issue was finally decided, she said, when “a voice” told her the pregnancy mustn’t be terminated.

So the chemo was put on hold until the second trimester.

“They told me the treatments could cause her to come out with some kind of birth defect, or I could end up losing it,” Woodley said.

On the morning of her sixth and final chemotherapy treatment, Woodley went into labor. Her obstetrician, who arrived at the hospital 15 minutes after she arrived, told her the baby was coming fast.

“I started to cry; I didn’t know what to think,” Woodley said.

After Woodley’s water broke, the baby was delivered in six minutes and three pushes. Jaice Woodley – who sat in the audience with her dad, Jonathan, as Shameka Woodley told her story – was two months premature, weighing 3 pounds, 1 ounce.

Now three months old and a little over 10 pounds, Jaice spent five weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters.

“She had a breathing tube put in, but it was taken out the very next day,” Shameka Woodley said.

Pam Lipscomb, principal at Turlington Woods, said the “Pink-A-Boo” Breast Cancer Awareness Fashion Show was a way of instilling the breast cancer awareness message in a young audience.

“The messages tell us you don’t have to worry until you are 40,” Lipscombe said. “But if you wait till 40, you may be too late.”

About a dozen students took to the “catwalk” in the gymnasium. Others were involved behind the scenes, or presented information behind the microphone.

Guests included Superintendent Deran Whitney, who commended the students’ initiative. “Not only have we seen the talent that you have, but we have seen that you recognize the importance of breast cancer awareness.”

As stylish as the students’ outfits were, Shameka Woodley, sharing her breast cancer experience in a quiet yet brave voice, stole the show.

She said has two left of a dozen more rounds of chemotherapy, and after that will require radiation therapy, a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery.

“I say my prayers, and I will be cancer-free soon,” Woodley said.