Breast Cancer Awareness

Grant County Journal
November 1, 2010
By Janet Warren
Journal columnist
On October 22, my husband sat for 15 minutes while people threw pie in his face. My sister thought they should have thrown them at his chest since; after all, this was a fundraiser for breast cancer research. Thirteen people were good sports and offered their faces for a great cause. Aaron Cummings, Heather Wood, Michelle Webb, Dan Andrews, Ray Towry, Wes Crago, Chris Jacobson, Matt Moore, Denver Morford, Tia Tracey, Tom Jones, Angus Lee, and Mike Warren. Denver Morford squeaked by Wes Crago to earn the top donations of $77.85. Hmm…were the pie throwers friends or enemies? Since the suggested donation was $3 for one pie and $5 for two pies, it was the pocket change that put Denver over the top. Safeway presented him with a plaque. The event was more successful than originally thought, raising $561. October was Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Safeway had a goal of raising $7,444 during the month.
If you men are thinking this is not a column for you, think again while you read these statistics:
“Though far less common than in women, it is possible for men to develop breast cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that about 2,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer are diagnosed in men each year and approximately 450 men die from breast cancer annually. Male breast cancers account for approximately 1% of all breast cancer cases.” (imaginis.com)
The only person in my family who has had breast cancer to date was my Uncle John. Uncle John is dead; not from breast cancer, which he survived, but from lymphoma which is the cancer that tends to claim lives in my family. Uncle John was in the 1%, but Peggy Grigg is in the 99%. Peggy recently retired as Grant County Health District Administrator. Even though Peggy is a nurse, she got busy raising her children and neglected herself. Doesn’t that sound familiar? In 1999, at the age of 44, some previously undetected lumps were finally big enough to catch her attention and she underwent mastectomies, chemotherapy, and radiation. Cancer is a monster, and I wondered how I could possibly humanize this monster. I found the human aspect in an article that Peggy’s youngest son, Damon Chlarson, wrote last year for the Ephrata High School newspaper entitled “My Mother’s Story: How I survived her cancer.” Damon tells of his struggle eleven years ago through six-year-old eyes. “I thought cancer was an incurable case of death…thinking time was slowly shutting my mother’s coffin.” Damon said his family pulled together and he became especially close to his sister Marlys. “Above all, I remember spending time with my mom, one on one. I felt it was my last chance to be with her, so I stayed close. I remember watching a lot of crappy TV and eating cereal, soaking in her last days.” Peggy remembers some very happy moments of being able to spend more time with her children as she was battling cancer. Marlys took a week off of school and took care of her mom after her operation. There was laughter and love in their home even though Damon may not have understood what was going on. After Damon found out his mom was going to be fine and live a normal life, he said, “I had an overwhelming feeling of relief. I felt like God answered my prayers. My family had taken on a new trust in God, though we were already a religious family.”
There is an old saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. I can’t say if that is true in all cases, but the women I spoke to felt their faith in God got stronger as they crouched in their foxholes, staring down a life-threatening illness. Perhaps some shake their fists at God, but Peggy said she was never mad at God--she was mad at herself for not finding her lumps sooner. Peggy has been cancer-free for 11 years, and although she still has some residual problems, life is good for her.
Mary Nelson is battling the monster right now. I wanted to talk to Mary because whenever I see her, she has a very positive attitude about her cancer. I wonder sometimes how I would react to such news, but I hope it would be like Mary. “I decided if I had a positive attitude, it would help my kids get through it,” Mary said. Mary has three adult children, two daughters and a son. A few weeks into the chemo, as Mary began to lose her hair, one of her daughters came over to shave her mom’s head. It made it much easier for her daughter when Mary started joking and laughing about it. Mary caught her cancer early, but it is an aggressive kind of cancer which takes an aggressive method of treatment. She will require six chemotherapy treatments and she is now at the half-way mark. Her last treatment will be a few days before Christmas. Mary is one of those people who can put a practical face on crisis and accept that it is what it is. “I realized I was going to have to fight this,” said Mary, “and prayer and reading scriptures has really helped me.” Each chemo treatment has had different side effects and Mary says she listens to her body and has learned what it needs in order to deal with her cancer more effectively.
Both Mary and Peggy agree that early detection is the key. Do your self-exams and get regular mammograms. I had my annual mammogram last week and it really wasn’t that big of a deal. I was in and out within a half hour. That’s a small price to pay to help detect cancer. And men…you are not off the hook. Any suspicious lump should be checked out, no matter where it is on your body.
At the time of my interview, Safeway had achieved 85 percent of their $7,444 goal. A bake sale and the “Pump for the Cure” where Ephrata High School cheerleaders pumped gas for donations, along with continued donations from the community put them almost $1,000 over their goal for a grand total of $8,421.97.
Some of the employees at the Ephrata Safeway have expended a lot of energy during October to raise money for breast cancer research. Fran Putnam, Kayla Gingrich, Nathan Arlantico and Kemi Gray put in countless hours to organize events. As interim store manager, Bruce Gamboa said, “The people of Ephrata are the ones who made it work, but the employees made it fun.”