Thank you to the breast cancer survivors who shared their stories with us throughout Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We brought them all together to share their words of wisdom. To read their full profiles visit www.yoursun.com/charlotte/features.
Ann Linenfelser: Take time for yourself. We women tend to give, give, give and put everyone else before ourselves. Sometimes you have to do what is best for you.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Carmen Blake: I’m a firm believer that God allows trials in our lives to strengthen us and draw us closer to Him. My diagnosis was a blessing in disguise. I now start each morning with prayer, thanking the Lord for giving me another day.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Carrie Gable: Be thankful every day. And keep the people who love you and you love close. Who you surround yourself with helps in your recovery, so keep positive people around you.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Dawn Moore: Get support, don’t be afraid to reach out. You’re a survivor two seconds after you hear the words “you have cancer.” As long as you’re breathing, you’re a survivor, even if you’re still undergoing treatment.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Debbie Jones: Please, please do your own self-examinations at least monthly. Before my diagnosis, I had just had a mammogram which showed nothing. Several weeks later, I discovered the lump on my own.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Debi Deryk: I believe this experience has made me look for the silver lining in life.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Deborah Iversen: I would say the whole experience has told me that we are stronger than we think. Challenges should be accepted and I am so grateful that, after 12 years since my diagnosis, I continue to be cancer-free. That has been my greatest gift.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Frank Desguin: Deal with it as best you can and rely on your faith, friends and family. You’ve got to hope for the best. And If you have an inverted nipple, go get it checked out.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Gina Grover: My Stage I breast cancer was found during a routine mammogram last year. With no family history of any kind of cancer, it was a shock, but knowing it was caught early and was totally treatable made it easier to process.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Joni Cerone: Surround yourself with the best support team. Do not let cancer define you or control you. Instead of waiting for my hair to fall out, my family took turns cutting my hair, even shaving it into a Mohawk style to take silly pictures.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Joy Butler: I have learned that I am a survivor and am still friends with other cancer survivors. You become sort of a “sisterhood” of warriors. It can happen to any of us.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Judi Harris: I developed an email list and sent regular update reports. You never realize how many people care about you until something like this happens. The writing for me was extremely cathartic. I was able to get my feelings out there and not keep them bottled up inside.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Kelli Lipe: While I will always be a planner, my life is changed in that living one day at a time is important. Time, people, making memories, doing things that are important to other people and not just yourself, those become the forefront of your thoughts.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Linda Wilson: Immediately, right to your solar plexus you get that “Why me? Poor me,” and then you pick it up, you go on and do what your doctors tell you. You have to believe in them, which I do — I have local doctors. Then, once you get in remission, you help everybody else.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Lisette Crouch: Find a support system, whether that is your family, friends or faith or all those things. Learn about the disease but don’t let it consume you. Don’t ask Dr. Google, ask your medical team.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Marilyn Eshoo: I had tons of greeting cards sent to me and I hung all of them in my room. Every time I would start to have a pity party, I’d look at those cards and think “those friends are all reaching out to me, they all care.”
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Marlene Merkle: My advice is to try to make this diagnosis and treatment a non-event as best you can. Stick to your routines and schedules. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Everyone has challenges, they just come in different forms.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Mary Ann Holoska: If you have dense breasts, get an MRI. Also, every cancer is different. So, don’t be obsessed by the statistics of your cancer. Get a BRCA test to see if there are any hereditary links.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Sandi Mullaly: My advice for anyone facing breast cancer would be to be your own advocate. Stay positive, hold your family and friends close. And always get a second opinion, as I did.
- PHOTO BY Lifetouch Church Directories
and Portraits Inc.
Shana Wilson: This experience has taught me to be real and raw. You always hear the saying that “life is short, live each day like it’s your last.” When you are faced with a cancer diagnosis, that becomes reality. It really does teach you to live like each day is your last.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Sheila Miller: I have never felt more loved in my life. However, one difficulty was communicating what I needed to everyone. Many people wanted to do something for me, come see me, call me on the phone. ... It was hard to tell someone with good intentions that “I know you want to give me a hug, but I am exhausted.”
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Stella Hicks: They often say cancer makes you look at life differently and I think that is true because you try not to sweat the small stuff anymore. You have to appreciate what you get.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Terri Carr: I reached out to the Venice Breast Cancer Networking Group and Sarasota Memorial Cancer Institute Thrive Program. They were a lifesaver. To be able to talk with other women who have been through this before is priceless. They were a wealth of information and support.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Terrie Hoops: Not to give up! Not to feel sorry for yourself! Focus on what is great each day and more of that will manifest. Trust in that inner voice and stop listening to the nay-sayers. ... Life does not happen to us, it happens for us. This is a gift.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Carol Davidson: One friend gave my name to a priest at our church and asked him to pray for me. When I introduced myself after mass just before my surgery, he put his hand on my head and prayed for the doctors. That has always stayed with me.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Corie MacLean: If my experiences can help just one person, then I have fought the good fight for a purpose. Our medical world has come so far and our education is helping us to become a society that is better informed and can make better decisions regarding our life, our health of our minds, bodies and souls.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
Yvonne Johnson: There are African American breast cancer survivors in the region who need each other for support and someone should to step up to inspire them to come forward. I want to be that person.
Anne Elferdink: My advice to anyone who is going through cancer is to fight like heck and buy the prettiest wig you can find.
- PHOTO PROVIDED
Kathleen Schuppenhauer: You really appreciate your friends and family and you appreciate life because you realize it can be taken away. You live your life every day.
- PHOTO PROVIDED
Emily Rhoads: Your friends and family can listen to you cry about losing your hair, losing your breasts, losing your fertility and being terrified of dying. ... but it truly is impossible for them to get it. ... So, I searched online for a community that gets me. And I found The Breasties. So, I searched online for a community that gets me. And I found The Breasties, an organization that is dedicated to providing community and support to young women affected by breast and reproductive cancers. Finding this community of strangers online was the lifeline I needed to help get me through. Even in survivorship I stay connected to this community and help cultivate community here locally as an ambassador to the Florida Breasties.
- PHOTO BY Porshia Hernandez Photography
Kate Doty: Get mammograms regularly as advised by your doctor. That is what saved me. I have no family history of breast cancer but I was in an HMO and went for the mammogram as my doctor recommended. It was an aggressive cancer but they found it early.
- PHOTO PROVIDED
Shaneen Wahl: As with other things, great and small, your friends will always be your friends and your family will always be your family, you just need to give them a few instructions on how to handle you.
- SUN PHOTO BY JERRY BEARD
- To view our latest e-Edition click the image on the left.
941-627-0464
Ear-Tronics manufactures its own line of hearing aids on-site in its Fort Myers facility. Because Ear-Tronics manufactures its own hearing aid…
941-629-9190
Medical Pavilion Walk-In Clinic is ready to take care of all your family's primary healthcare needs, with services for patients ages 3 and up.…
941-255-0069
Dr. Alvaro R. Bada M.D. is a surgeon in Port Charlotte, Florida.
Post a comment as
Report
Watch this discussion.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.