Carolyn Wesley

Diagnosis: Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Carolyn Wesley grew up in the Milwaukee area within a very close family -- with her parents, Paul and Judy, an identical twin sister, Jeanette, her younger sister, Brenda, and younger brother, Gregory. Her father is Paul Joseph, who spent his career as our local expert meteorologist on TMJ-4 for 36 years.

She went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned a bachelor?s degree (1995) in early childhood special education. Four years later she earned a master?s degree from Cardinal Stritch University in the same area. She has worked for Milwaukee Public Schools since 1995. Since 2013 she has been a special education program support teacher on the initial evaluation teams. Before that she was an early childhood special education teacher for 18 years.

She has been married since 2003 to John Wesley and is the mother to two wonderful daughters, Ryann (born in 2006) and Mia (born in 2009). She loves spending time with friends and family and in her free time she enjoys playing tennis.

Carolyn was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer on August 19, 2010, three weeks after her identical twin sister, Jeanette Joseph, was diagnosed. The two years after being diagnosed, Carolyn went through two radioactive iodine treatments (RAI) and three surgeries (thyroidectomy and two left neck dissections). She has follow-up scans and blood work to monitor her thyroid cancer since it is still ?detectable.?