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Call a friend each month to remind them of their
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112 E. Main Street, Cherryville, NC
(704) 435-5225 « Sandra Beam
October is National
Breast CANCER AwsRENESS Month
October 13-14,2004 ¢ Republic Newspapers, Inc. © Page iC
Breast cancer can affect anyone, even someone right here in our newspaper
family. Lib Stewart, retired news editor of The Kings Mountain Herald
and now part-time staff writer of The Cherryville Eagle, shares
her personal account of her survival of breast cancer.
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The ‘C’ word - hearing a
doctor say, “It’s cancer.”-
strikes fear in anyone, but
for a woman, breast cancer
can be especially devastating
because it attacks the very
essence of a woman's
femininity and womanhood.
If detected early enough,
breast cancer is 97 percent
survivable.
Sixteen years ago on May
23, 1988, by the grace of God
and early detection of cancer
by a mammogram, I became
a survivor. The prayer that I
prayed, “Lord, help me to
accept the things I cannot
change,” the support of
family, church and friends
and a positive attitude
sustained me.
My experience with cancer
began with a routine visit to
the local hospital for a
mammogram in early May
1988 where I also made
pictures of new mammogra-
phy equipment and wrote a
story for The Kings Moun-
tain Herald. On May 11,
1988, my doctor gave me the
results of the test. It looked
suspicious, but he didn’t
find any lumps and as a
precaution ordered a needle
biopsy. There was never a
history of breast cancer in
my family. I was healthy, but
my father died of cancer at
age 75 on September 5, 1983.
“Thy will be done” I
prayed over and over, but I
was scared. On May 16,
1988, my sister-in-law, Mary
Jo Stewart, accompanied me
to Kings Mountain Hospital
for the biopsy.
On Wednesday, May 18,
the surgeon told me I was in
perfect health, I threw on my
clothes to return to work.
The telephone rang and I
heard the doctor say, “I don't
believe it. I'm on my way.”
I was out the door when
the nurse called me to wait.
The doctor had gone to the
hospital to check the slides
and the shocked expression
on his face reconfirmed my
fear when he returned to the
examination room.
“Lib, I don’t know how to
tell you this except to say it.
The last slide showed the
malignancy.”
Cancer. The doctor told me
in the very kindness way
that I had breast cancer.
I remember that I sat there
in a daze as he spoke to me
of options, a lumpectomy
with radiation if I preferred,
breast reconstruction.
“This is all a nightmare,”
I kept thinking. “What are
you recommending?” I
finally asked. “A modified
radical mastectomy.”
“What!” I exclaimed. “You
mean removal of the breast?”
He nodded and then the
tears came and from God
came the faith to endure and
to survive and live.
“You can wait a couple of
weeks, get a second or third
opinion and see a cancer
specialist,” the doctor said.
It was not courage that
helped me make a decision
that saved my life, but some
God-given strength.
“Schedule the surgery for
Monday,” I said.
News reporters are sup-
posed to have tough skins,
but this reporter was scared
to death.
Above, Lib
ewart points to the Blue Cross-Blue Shield -
of North Carolina Button Chair, which was a model for
abreast cancer awareness project she pushed as national
president of the American Legion Auxiliary in 1999-2000.
On Monday, May 23, 1988,
Mary Jo and I returned to the
local hospital at 6:30 a.m.
They teased me that I
brought my own nurses with
me. Mary Jo, wife of my
brother, Gary, is a registered
nurse and at the time was
with McGill Clinic and now
with Cleveland Home
Health, and Beverly Stewart
Berry, my niece, is a nurse in
the intensive care unit at
Kings Mountain Hospital.
“I just wanted to tell you, I
told my doctor that I know
we agreed that the operation
would be so that I could
have reconstruction, but the
important thing is to get the
cancer out, regardless of how
you do it,” I said.
He patted me on the head
and said, “I know and I plan
to do that.”
The surgery went well.
I required no radiation, no
chemotherapy and no
exercise.
“You are one of the lucky
ones,” my doctor told me.
“You have a 95 to 100
percent chance cancer will
never reoccur. I can’t tell too
many of my cancer patients
that.”
Nearly four weeks after my
surgery, I was back at my
desk at The Herald.
If detected early enough
breast cancer is survivable
and I am grateful for that.
It is this message of
optimism that I'fook to 50
states and eight foreign
countries as natipnal presi-
dent of the Ametican Legion
that with its membership of
nearly one million women,
that this was an issue to
advocate. Being
the world’s largest women’s
patriotic service organization
gave me the platform to
spread this message of hope.
/ Robert Lee Stowe Jr.
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y wo
e leader of
Everywhere I have spoken to
men-and women have said
that “I stand before you by
the grace of God and be-
cause of early detection of
breast cancer by a mammo-
gram.” All ages of women in
virtually every state I visited
pledged to have yearly
mammograms.
For its first objective in our
community service program,
we pushed increasing
awareness through the
promotion of early detection
and education on the disease
itself. We also reminded our
audiences that while women
predominately are diag-
nosed with breast cancer, it
can happen to men as well.
One to three percent of
breast cancer patients are
men.
We told our audiences that
part of the reason women do
not get a mammogram lies in
fear. However, if something
is abnormal, finding it early
is one’s best defense. A
mammogram can detect a
lump years before a woman
could discover it on her own.
Moreover, it is comforting to
know that even if something
questionable is detected,
more than 80 percent of
lumps or suspicious areas
are not cancerous.
A biopsy, a minor opera-
tion where a thin needle
removes a small amount of
tissue to determine if the
lump is malignant, is the
only way to know if cancer is
present. Breast cancer
treatment can include a
" lumpectomy, limited surgery,
which removes the cancer,
but not the entire breast,
radiation, mastectomy,
chemotherapy and hormone
treatment.
While there are a number
of measures which can be
taken to lower one’s risk of
getting breast cancer, it
cannot be prevented. Both
the cause and its cure remain
undiscovered, but today
there is an estimated two
million breast cancer survi-
vors in the United States.
The role that diet, weight
and environmental factors
play in the development of
breast cancer is being
continuously studied.
Generally, a regimen of
regular exercise, a low-fat
diet, alcohol moderation and
a smoke-free lifestyle is
recommended to lower risks
of breast cancer, as well as
other forms of cancer. Also,
there is no correlation
between breast size and
ss aii de Te ede fel elite nie
cancer risk.
Along with awareness, the
legion auxiliary’s emphasis
in 1999-2000 enhanced
resources available. One
resource is the “Tell A Friend’
program where each partici-
pant encourages others to
tell a friend about
mammograms. Twenty-five
percent of those who get a
mammogram do so because
a friend encouraged it.
A project which started in
North Carolina, but is now
going national due to its
overwhelming response is
the Blue Cross-Blue Shield
Breast Cancer Button Chair.
I invited a representative of
Blue Cross-Blue Shield of
North Carolina to take the
chair with its thousands of
colorful buttons to a national
meeting in Washington, DC
in March 2000. The idea to
decorate chairs with buttons
representing survivors
caught on as my national
president’s project for breast
cancer.
Since my return in to
Kings Mountain, the mail-
man has been busy deliver-
ing chairs of all sizes deco-
rated with buttons. It is the
stories behind the buttons
that give the chairs the
powerful impact. Each
button represents a life and a
victory.
Proceeds from my national
president's project related to
breast cancer awareness
were divided between the
button chair project and the
Susan G. Komen Breast
Cancer Foundation, the
nation’s leading catalyst in
the fight against breast
cancer and sponsor of the
Komen Race for the Cure.
The money is being used not
only for research, but to help
women who can’t afford
treatments.
Why did I share my
personal experiences?
Because I have learned that
attitude is a key to survival
of most any challenges of
life, especially cancer.
When I returned to normal
routines, I noticed little
things that I never noticed
before. I appreciated even
more the small kindnesses of
family and friends and I
noticed the beauty of nature
and its wonders more
intensely. Sunny days,
laughing kids and small
things that most people miss.
After cancer, I found I
treasured life’s friendships
more and probably have
gained more out of life this
past 16 years than ever
before. That in itself is an
enriching experience.
Yes, cancer is scary. Six
members of my family have
had bouts with cancer, three
survived. The heart of our
family, our mother, died on
March 22, 2001 of heart
disease. Six survivors from
our church participate
annually in the American
Cancer Society's Relay for
Life. Many friends in the
Kings Mountain area have
had bouts with cancer.
Yes, people die of cancer
every day, but people are
also run over by drunk
drivers and defective wiring
causes a family to perish in a
house fire. We hear and read
about tragedies and call
these people victims of fate.
Yet, fate will have no part in
the deaths of many women
from breast cancer this year.
Early detection saves lives,
but because we are human
we are afraid of what we
may find out when we go for
a check-up or a mammo-
gram and so we put it off
until tomorrow. Many times,
lumps are not malignant.
I hope this personal
account will say to people
who face any form of cancer |,
that you cannot only sur-
vive, but you can triumph
and flourish and have active,
meaningful and productive
lives just like me, a survivor
of breast cancer.
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