Breast Cancer changed me, made me a better person...
My journey began on December 18, 1995. I was 42 and had not had a mammo as yet, when I noticed a sore on the side of my right breast, it looked like a pimple and it was sore to touch. So, as the myth goes, with cancer there is no pain…..I learned this was wrong, oh boy did I learn!

I had my first Mammogram, it was not clear, so they wanted to do an Ultrasound. This, they told me would tell us if the "suspicious lump" was liquid, which meant it may be a cyst, or solid which takes us back to the word I have grown to hate the most in the world…SUSPICIOUS!!!

I then had to do some more waiting and not knowing until the surgeon's office called to let me know that he had the mammo/ultrasound results and this was still a suspicious lump. We made an appointment to see him on December 28th, 1995 when I was told that this mass was very very very (yes you know the next word) 'suspicious'. Just what does suspicious mean???? Ominous, fully unknowing, or is it just an easy way to say, "I am pretty sure its cancer". Then he tells us we need to do a biopsy of the suspicious mass/lump! So this word 'suspicious' bounced around that exam room like a rubber ball! We were both in tears, scared and all sooo unknowing of whats next. Am I gonna die or whats up with this suspicious stuff? I then thought, "I want this done as soon as it can be, on a need to know in a hurry basis" So I fanangled my surgeon into doing the excisional biopsy, also axillary dissection (a two-fer yeeehaaa!) on the very next day December 29th, 1995. This was not easy as all this testing and other stuff was all going on during the Christmas Holidays, scariest Christmas we have ever had! More waiting on pathology from my biopsies'. After they were done my surgeon came into the recovery room and told me "Sharon I'm sorry but you have breast cancer" ……… Merry Christmas Sharon and Phil…

Breast cancer changed me, made me a better person. I wish I didn't have to have had bc to have this happen to me..but it did. Bc made me realise that there is nothing more important in life but life….people help to form this life thing…and life is toooo short…..and the laundry or vacuuming can wait, cause that reading assignment that my kiddo is struggling with is much more important! My sense of humor became more outrageous hehehe. I already had a strange one, anyway it came more so. But that's good, a sense of humor is a must to help get through this beast!

Thank you God for sending me Susan and Friends In Need. Thank you God for giving me a second chance at a new life. Thank you God for giving me Faith, Hope and Strength and lots of love to guide my family and me to this point in my life. Thank you Dear God for all your many blessings. Thank you God for giving Susan the vision to create Friends for others to receive help that they may need. AMEN

** For Sassy's complete story and links to some GREAT Breast Cancer resources, please visit her website .

It is worth sharing miracles...
My mother died of breast cancer in 1982. But she was a survivor for 25 years! She had her first mastectomy in 1957 when I was a young child.

That was so many years ago, it is a miracle that she survived that long. They would give her 5 years to live after each operation. After 5 years, if she was still alive, she just might make it! What a way to live your life! Death hanging over your head all the time! And this was before chemo was even invented!

All my mother had was radiation therapy. That is all that was available at that time.

I hardly knew (or remember) what she went thru the first time. I do know that I stayed with my aunt for a while. It was only just recently that I pieced some information together to remember that.

Mom's next operation came when my 3rd child was 8 months old. She was in the hospital for to have surface tumors removed from her scalp that were breast cancer! She also had a full hysterectomy at that time, also. My mother-in-law was in the hospital dying for other reasons. I was torn between staying with my Mom or going with my husband to be with his Mom. AFter Mom's surgery, I went with my husband.

Next, one year my mother went in for a perm one day. She'd been having neck problems (pain), so she went to the dr. the next day. He came in and told her, "Whatever you do, do NOT move your neck again!" He put her in a brace to immobilize her neck (this covered her back and chest). She had a tumor that ate away her spinal column and the wrong move would have severed her spinal cord! God was protecting her! She had radiation therapy to remove the tumors (breast cancer again). This took over a year.

Next was her 2nd mastectomy. And, finally, her own mother died (96 yo). Mother lived 6 months longer. I still think that her mother's death gave Mom permission to give up her fight. She was only 62 yo and had a 25 yr long, hard fight. She came up to PA from FL to be with me when she felt like she was dying. The cancer went to her liver finally. The drs gave her a chemo tablet, but said that it was too late for chemo.

Mom lived 2 months with me, for which I am so thankful for! She celebrated her 40th wedding anniversary at my house. She had many friends in our church who came to a picnic I held for her. She lived a fruitful and inspiring life. I miss her to this day and will forever. In her later years we became more like sisters than Mom-Daughter. We were friends. I thank God for her and for our relationship!

I would think that my Mom set some records for surviving breast cancer that she first got in 1957. But I beieve the only way she did so was because God had work for her to do (possibly me!). Her crown is very large, I'm certain.

Sharing my memories,
Yvette Bergeron