Shannon, Michelle and Dawndy
Left to right: Shannon (younger sister), Michelle (older sister who had the breast cancer), Dawndy (participant)
By Dawndy, a Sister Study participant from South Carolina
It was a typical day in the newsroom. I was in the middle of reading over scripts, writing copy, looking up facts, fixing grammatical errors, answering viewers’ phone calls and responding to the countless e-mails that invade my computer inbox. It was close to show time and the reporters and photographers were frantically working to make deadline with their stories. As one of the anchors, I was watching the minutes tick away knowing that I still had to get my makeup on and get to the studio for the first of several evening shows. I had been given a last minute assignment from one of my producers to research statistics on breast cancer cases. As I was perusing the American Cancer Society’s website, my eyes caught a glimpse of a link about the “Sister Study.” I logged on and immediately felt the conviction to be a participant. I called my news director over to my desk to plead my case that despite only fifteen minutes until the newscast, I wanted to throw together a piece on the Sister Study to request fellow viewers to join me. She shared the excitement of my taking part in a research project that would involve fifty thousand women who, through the bond of knowing what it’s like to have a sister hit with the disease, would feel a sort of sisterhood in fighting back.
It had been two years that month since my sister, Michelle, learned a lump in her breast was malignant. Amazingly, had she have been passive, one can only guess what her outcome would have been. Michelle had gone to a doctor to have the lump checked. He was quite convinced it was benign and tried to assure Michelle not to worry. It was just a lump. No reason for concern. Michelle, who has been a nurse for twenty plus years, did not feel confident in the diagnosis. She simply had a bad feeling. Five months passed and Michelle had developed telltale signs: pain and dimpling in the breast. She went for a second opinion. Michelle’s bad feeling had validity. A quickly scheduled surgical biopsy led to a lumpectomy and the removal of seventeen lymph nodes and surrounding tissue.
When my other sister, Shannon, called me with the news, I gasped. I had been certain it would not be cancerous. How could one physician be so sure the lump was nothing? And what would the cancer have done had Michelle not pursued more medical exploration?
Radiation and hormone therapy have put my sister back on to a healthy path. It’s a privilege to call her a survivor. And it’s a privilege to honor her by participating in the Sister Study.