Angie Pothuisje credits Tyson Foods and her Enid, Oklahoma, facility nurse for helping save her life. On Feb. 3, 2021, Angie got a mammogram while at work – an easy visit to the Oklahoma University Medicine Mobile Mammogram Coach parked just outside her Tyson Foods facility, where team members could receive a free mammogram while on the clock.  

“I went in for my mammogram, and they called me back about a week later and wanted me to come to OU Breast Health,” Angie said. She got a biopsy at the end of March. It was breast cancer. Small, Angie said, and stage one, but aggressive. After more tumors were found, she scheduled a mastectomy that May and later started chemotherapy. 

“I did four rounds of chemo, and I survived it,” Angie said. “That’s what scared me the most was the chemo. The medicine.” 

And her work family helped keep her going during those hard days. When she felt well enough, Angie would come to her facility and visit with friends. Her management and fellow team members would call to check on her, send flowers, make sure she was still updated on all the events happening at the facility and helped create flexible schedules as she started coming back to work post-treatment.  

“My cancer marker is perfect,” Angie said. “It feels amazing.” And to Barbara Chandler, the Enid facility nurse who organized the visit from the OU Medicine Mobile Mammogram Coach to the Enid facility, Angie says, “bravo.”  

“Early detection is key, and she’s smart for bringing [the bus] in. She helped save my life.” 

The mobile mammogram bus returned to Enid earlier this month and 73 team members received their free mammograms. 

“I will cheer for everybody else that gets on that bus,” Angie said. “It’s very needed. It needs to be done.” 

Angie’s also thankful, she said, for having such a great company to work for, with benefits and insurance that helped her fight her cancer. 

On-site mammograms are one of many ways Tyson Foods works to advance employee well-being. We recently expanded our employee benefits to include longer parental leave, additional mental health support and access to full health care on day one of employment. In 2022, our Upward Academy program – which offers free classes in English as a Second Language (ESL), financial literacy and more – grew to also provide free education for U.S. team members through a partnership with Guild. 

Learn more about our benefits and careers at Tyson here.