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The nation\u2019s 32nd-ranked swimming recruit and member of a 2016 signing class that could prove to be program-changing, Madison is among the best high-school breaststrokers in America.<\/p>\n
Swimming at the next level, however, was not preordained.<\/p>\n
She was good at pretty much everything she played as a youngster, once harboring dreams of playing college basketball that were by no means farfetched. Madison was just too good in the pool though.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to quit swimming when I was 12 to play AAU basketball because at some point you gotta play the sport year-round,\u201d Madison said. \u201cYou\u2019re just not going to get where you want to be. So I was going to quit that summer, got third in state in both my breaststroke events and then my 50 breast was 18th in the nation. So my coach just pretty much said you can\u2019t quit swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time she was a high-school freshman, she knew swimming in college was her future, just not at UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never gave UK much of a chance because I thought it was home,\u201d Madison said. \u201cWhy would I want to stay home? And then when my mom got diagnosed was the first time I said, OK, I\u2019ll visit UK.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, it didn\u2019t take long for Madison to fall in love.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when I realized all I ever wanted in a college was right there in front of me,\u201d Madison said. \u201cSo it\u2019s not just I was staying because she was diagnosed, but because she was diagnosed I realized what I had in front of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The interest she had from upwards of a dozen other high-level college programs mattered little at that point. The mix of personalities on UK\u2019s coaching staff, Southeastern Conference football, an athletics department committed to excelling in all sports, a highly ranked pharmacy program and, most of all, her future team were too much to pass up.<\/p>\n
\u201cTeam chemistry was the biggest thing,\u201d Madison said. \u201cI visited like 13 schools. Didn\u2019t meet every team, but met a lot of the teams and just no one gets along like the UK kids do.\u201d<\/p>\n
She committed to UK last April and signed in the fall.<\/p>\n
Facing it together<\/strong><\/p>\n The Winsteads talk about cancer just a little bit differently.<\/p>\n The mother of two who recently celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary never uses the word \u201cI\u201d when she talks about her diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>\n So does her family.<\/p>\n \u201cWe say we for everything,\u201d Madison said. \u201cWe all have cancer and we\u2019re all going through it together.\u201d<\/p>\n Shane \u2013 a longtime pharmacy specialist and eventually director of clinical pharmacy services at UK HealthCare and faculty member at the College of Pharmacy \u2013 is not facing cancer alone.<\/p>\n It\u2019s with that attitude that she approached the surgery and chemotherapy her doctors at the Markey Cancer Center were confident would lead to remission. It\u2019s with that attitude that she coped with the news that her prognosis had worsened.<\/p>\n \u201cMy oncologist was, I would say, brutally honest with us,\u201d Shane said. \u201cI appreciate him for that, for not painting this unrealistic picture. But that\u2019s when we realized that\u2014essentially the way we talk about it now that cure is not really something we plan on or that we can realistically expect out of the treatments we have available. None of them will ever be able to get rid of all the tumors we have.\u201d<\/p>\n Overcoming denial<\/strong><\/p>\n Madison has always been mature for her age \u2013 \u201cwise beyond her years\u201d as her mother puts it.<\/p>\n She handled her mother\u2019s cancer diagnosis accordingly.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen she was diagnosed, we talked about how for her the world was going to stop as we know it. Obviously she\u2019s not working anymore,\u201d Madison said. \u201cHer whole focus turned into what\u2019s going to make her healthy, what\u2019s going to make her happy.<\/p>\n \u201cBut for me, my world wasn\u2019t going to stop. So at some point you have to find the way to change it in a way that\u2019s going to make our family the best it can be. But also, I can\u2019t drop out of school. I couldn\u2019t quit swimming because it\u2019s the only thing that keeps me sane.\u201d<\/p>\n Although Madison recognized she had no choice but to go on with her life \u2013 with eight-hour chemotherapy sessions every other week spent at Shane\u2019s bedside added to her routine of early-morning swims and late nights studying \u2013 she never fully processed the reality she now faced. It wasn\u2019t until the most trying summer of her life that she did.<\/p>\n Shane\u2019s cancer had spread, but Madison soldiered on. She continued to dominate meets, but her times weren\u2019t up to her lofty standards.<\/p>\n \u201cI just never trained well the whole summer,\u201d Madison said. \u201cEvery meet I went to was subpar. Every practice I had was subpar.\u201d<\/p>\n It all came to a head in San Antonio, Texas at July\u2019s Junior National Meet. She was seeded third \u00a0but finished 15th \u00a0in 100 meter breaststroke event and failed to make a final in any other event.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was really the first time since Madison started swimming that she didn\u2019t meet the goals she had,\u201d Shane said. \u201cI mean, honestly, I think it was the first time that she had not done what she wanted to do. And it was hard to see her go through that. There was really nothing I could do as a parent to help.\u201d<\/p>\n Some good did come of it though. At long last, she faced the fact that her mother\u2019s cancer was having a profound effect on her.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until I had that meet that I realized this is actually a very stressful thing in my life and if I don\u2019t confront the fact that I\u2019m going through this, I\u2019m not going to get through it,\u201d Madison said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just go around all the obstacles all the time. You gotta go through.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘Sun Shall Shine’<\/strong><\/p>\n Two of Shane\u2019s friends were in Florida last January when they learned of her diagnosis. Watching the sunset that evening, one of them texted Shane with an uplifting message for her battle with the illness: \u201cShane\u2019s sun shall shine.\u201d<\/p>\n The phrase stuck with her all the way until March, when Shane and Keith spent some time of their own in Florida. Watching that same sun set over the Gulf of Mexico, she had an idea.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re watching this beautiful sunset and I\u2019m in tears and it\u2019s just so emotional and so beautiful,\u201d Shane said. \u201cI just realized how much that meant to me. I \u00a0got this idea to challenge my friends to share pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n Her Facebook and Instagram feeds have since been flooded with photos with the hash tag #SunShallShine. The pictures are nice, but they\u2019ve come to symbolize more.<\/p>\n \u201cI like the way it inspires to take that moment and appreciate it,\u201d Shane said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about sharing the sunset.\u201d<\/p>\n Sun Shall Shine has come to be the mantra that defines the way the Winsteads approach Shane\u2019s cancer. Rather than dwelling on the dark times that they know lie ahead \u2013 which Shane is acutely aware of considering her medical background \u2013 they\u2019re seeking to focus on the brightness of today.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know when,\u201d Shane said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what\u2019s between now and then so it just doesn\u2019t make any sense to spend the time that we have thinking about how it\u2019s going to get worse. That\u2019s going to happen whether or not we worry about it, so it\u2019s really a matter of taking those days that we have that are good and stretching them out as much as we can, making the most of them and understanding that it won\u2019t be like that always, but why worry about it now?\u201d<\/p>\n And for Shane and Madison both, few days are better than meet day, especially this season.<\/p>\n Madison, not long removed from her first failure as a swimmer this summer, had a dazzling senior season. She swam blazing fast times as she worked toward February\u2019s state high school meet and specifically the 100 breaststroke. Madison had finished second in the event in each of the previous three years.<\/p>\n Another second-place finish was not an option. Madison said she was going to win it and she did, as well as sharing Girls\u2019 Outstanding Meet Competitor honors with fellow UK signee Asia Seidt.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just about me at that point,\u201d Madison said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone through this journey together. I\u2019ve been swimming for nine years and I couldn\u2019t have done it without them. My senior year was to kind of show them this is what we\u2019ve achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n Seeing the dream through<\/strong><\/p>\n Coming to Kentucky has been a long time coming for Madison. It took countless hours studying, practicing and competing to make it happen, most of which Shane invested alongside her daughter.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Madison couldn\u2019t stand the thought of taking the first step of her college journey without her mother.<\/p>\n \u201cI had big goals for my collegiate swimming career and they were a huge part of visiting colleges, helping me figure out which one was right for me that I couldn\u2019t imagine her not seeing that dream through,\u201d Madison said. \u201cIt is hard to even think about how there might be some NCAAs she might miss and there might be SEC meets she might miss, but as long as I can guarantee she sees me in a UK cap, it would just make me feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n True to her ever-optimistic nature, Shane is insistent that the Blue-White meet be a celebration.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want it to be about cancer so much as it is about the message that we have,\u201d Shane said. \u201cAnd hopefully other people take that as in some way inspiring them to recognize that it can happen to any of us at any point.\u201d<\/p>\n For Madison, it will be. She\u2019s proud of the path she\u2019s chosen. She\u2019s eager for her mom to see her new team and coaches together for the first time, as well as many of her fellow signees who will make the trip for the meet even though they can\u2019t compete.<\/p>\n \u201cI picked this team and I picked this school and I picked this coaching staff for a reason,\u201d Madison said. \u201cIt means so much that I picked a school that is doing this for me and my family. With that much support coming from the team and the coaching staff, I want her to see it carried out. This is an amazing place and I\u2019m in a good place for the next four years, at least.\u201d<\/p>\n The hardest thing for Madison is knowing there\u2019s a good chance Shane won\u2019t be there for all four of those years, but the sun will certainly shine come Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be very emotional, not knowing how many meets she\u2019s going to see but knowing at least this one she is going to see is going to be a bittersweet thing,\u201d Madison said. \u201cI\u2019m going to be very excited that the people we love are all going to be there and I\u2019m going to get to swim with my teammates, but obviously we\u2019re doing this for a reason. It\u2019s not a great reason, but hopefully people are inspired by it.\u201d<\/p>\n Kentucky Athletics contributed this feature.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A secret can be a frightening thing for the parents of an 18-year-old, and Shane Winstead knows her daughter Madison has them. Madison \u2013 a current senior at Paul Laurence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":195570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-college"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sportslabs-webproxy.imgix.net\/http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.silverchalice.co%2Fkty-prod%2F2016%2F04%2F14%2F20160414153831_12036432_10206717249868556_5929603953933663834_n_jpg?s=7d23181ecfa3ecb9d3d64160462fbc43\")