This month’s Eye on Health special section focuses on cancer, which hits close to home as my younger sister is a recent cancer survivor.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 26 and newly married. With no history of breast cancer in our family, the news threw everyone for a loop — most of all her. Instead off heading off on a honeymoon, she embarked on a year and a half of radiation, chemotherapy and battles with insurance companies.
Everyone copes in different ways. My sister is a private person. She didn’t like to talk about her treatments. She said she just wanted to be treated normally. But not knowing the details worried my parents half to death, as she was living across the country and they couldn’t personally check in on her.
Most of us have been touched by cancer, either personally or through someone we know. It’s scary. But luckily there are those out there who seek to help.
Bethany Gurzynski of apparel company Toledo Threads designed a charity T-shirt reading “I can. I will. End of story.” Renee’s Survivor Shop, offering wigs and other items, is operated by a cancer survivor at the University of Toledo Medical Center. Staff with Mercy Cancer Center’s STAR Program help survivors lessen ongoing pain associated with side effects from treatment.
Cancer takes a lot out of a person physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. It makes you sad, mad, frustrated, hopeful and terrified, sometimes all at once. I can only imagine. But I know it’s bad because my normally mild-mannered sister defiantly wears a necklace that reads, “F— Cancer.”
Cancer is tough, but she’s tougher. The day doctors gave her the “all clear,” she posted a photo of two fingers covering the R and S in the words “breast cancer.” She beat cancer. I’ve never been prouder. To all those still battling, fight on.
Sarah Ottney is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press. She can be reached at sottney@toledofreepress.com.
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