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Focusing on Younger Women with Cancer by Karen West

It’s payback time for Debbie Cantwell. Her two-year struggle with breast cancer is nearly over, but she is just beginning her quest to help other young women in their journey with cancer.
Cantwell, a two-year (and counting) breast cancer survivor, is founder of the Seattle-based Breast Cancer Sisterhood, www.breastcancersisterhood.com, a nationwide nonprofit organization geared toward helping women under 40 who are going through cancer.

“This is my way of giving thanks for all the kindness and generosity I was blessed with,’’ says Cantwell of Bellevue, who has a 6-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son.

While there are other organizations to help breast cancer survivors locally, including Northwest Hope & Healing, which is geared toward breast cancer patients at Swedish Medical Center, Cantwell is focusing on younger women nationwide who don’t have the resources to seek out professional care. “I believe there’s a gap in available services. Most organizations don’t think of the special needs of the younger breast cancer patient. I do because I was one.”
While breast cancer in young women accounts for a small percentage of all breast cancer cases, the impact of this disease is widespread. There are more than 250,000 women 40 and under in the U.S. living with breast cancer, and more than 11,100 young women will be diagnosed in the next year, according to Young Survival Coalition, an international, nonprofit network of breast cancer survivors dedicated to educating and supporting young women stricken with breast cancer.

Cantwell, 43, is still in the initial stages of establishing her organization, which operates under the slogan: “Until there’s a cure, there’s the sisterhood.’’ So far, she is helping women across the country whom she has met through the Internet on the Young Survival Coalition Web site. She recently applied for several grants with the hope of expanding her base to reach out to more women locally.

Many of the young women she helps are single and don’t have sufficient financial resources or vast support groups. Rebecca Larson of Dallas, Texas, says Cantwell’s organization has been a godsend to her. At 32 years old, she already has been diagnosed twice with breast cancer (in 2006 and again this year) and has endured a bilateral mastectomy, a hysterectomy and reconstructive surgery. A single mom who is maintaining a full-time job as a trade journal editor, Larson was scheduled to begin six weeks of daily radiation treatments in September.

“She (Cantwell) has been absolutely wonderful in terms of support — financially, mentally and emotionally. The whole cancer thing is a mind-numbing race to discover who gets to live. It’s mind-boggling.”

Larson says funds from the Seattle organization recently helped her move into an apartment with her 3-year-old daughter after separating from her husband. “With her charity, she has personally helped me to get in a safe and secure location where I can heal mentally.” Cantwell sent Larson a gift card to Target for groceries and other items for her new apartment. “She restocked my pantry. I didn’t have to worry about a thing.”

Cantwell says it’s women like Larson who keep her motivated to reach out to others.

“Everywhere you look, people are raising money for breast cancer research and awareness. But I want to help the women struggling for survival today. There are a lot of books and information on the Internet, but a lot of it is geared toward older women. If I could gather up all the young women facing breast cancer who have no one to lean on and be their friend, buy their groceries, clean their houses and care for their children, I would.”

For Cantwell, her organization is the next best thing. “I was frustrated and saddened by the hundreds of women I had come across over the Internet who didn’t have the kind of support I’d had. I made a promise to myself to do something about it. They are facing the battle of their lives and many of them are going through it alone.”

Cantwell says it’s the little things that make a huge difference in the lives of cancer victims. She has purchased restaurant gift cards, toys and crafts for kids, pajamas, even a NetFlix membership. She paid for housecleaning for two months for a 39-year-old woman in North Carolina. And she recently sent a spa gift certificate to a 20-something woman in Chicago who used to be a dancer in a bar. “She told me the first thing she wanted to do after getting out of the hospital was get a pedicure. She’s been in the hospital for a few months getting injections of radioactive tracers to fight the breast cancer that spread to her bones. She’s in unbearable pain. I’m sending her to the trendiest spa in Chicago. I hope it gives her something to look forward to. But she’s not doing well.”

She says it’s an emotional roller coaster because some of the young women she helps pass away just a few months later. “It’s painful to get to know these women. But now that I know them, I can’t pretend they don’t exist.”

Cantwell says she couldn’t have gotten through the last two years without all of the friends, family, neighbors and coworkers who helped her with meals, gifts, positive thoughts, cards, phone calls and encouragement.

“In the midst of going through the struggles of surgery, chemo and radiation, the single most difficult time of my life, I realized how loved I was and how many people cared about me,’’ she says. Even though she had just started a new job, her colleagues, some of whom she barely knew, reached out to her with casseroles, teddy bears, flowers, donated vacation time and constant well wishes. “I never felt I was going through this alone.”

After a double mastectomy and 12 long months of chemotherapy and radiation that left her depleted and burned, she is finally cancer free. But Cantwell, who works full time as a copywriter, couldn’t just take up where she left off. “Starting out, I told my husband it was going to be a life-defining experience. And it was. Breast cancer not only changed my figure, it reshaped the person I am today.”

She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 41 during a routine mammogram, only the second one she had had in her life. She said her doctors never felt the three tumors in her one breast, but they showed up in a subsequent ultrasound exam. A tumor in her second breast also was detected.

“All it took was a few odd looks,” she recalls. “A few too many ‘specialists’ looking at my mammogram. I knew. They told me it looked suspicious.” She’ll never forget the look on the face of the radiologist who said: “I know what I’m looking at.”

Cantwell was fortunate to have an instant support group, namely her husband and her parents. When she went in for a “second-look” ultrasound, her mother came with her. “She held my hand while tears streamed down both of our faces.”

At first Cantwell tried to shield the news from her husband, but “he knew the minute I said I would be late coming home. He heard it in my voice. When I walked in the door later that afternoon, he was sitting on the couch staring at the wall with tears in his eyes.’’

Three biopsies later, Cantwell was scheduled for a bilateral mastectomy to get rid of three tumors ranging in size from .6 cm to 4.6 cm. The doctors took both breasts. “The breasts I fed my babies with. Just like that...gone. Frankly, I was glad to be rid of them. To rid my body of the “bad guys,” as my kids called the tumors.

Next came chemotherapy. With five lymph nodes testing positive for cancer, she was ready for her oncologist to hit her with everything he had. “I wasn’t giving up without a fight. Even after I had an allergic reaction to the second round of chemo, I refused to give up. I missed my hair and eyelashes. But I kept thinking, things could be worse.”

And they were. With radiation, Cantwell blistered and bled. She was forced to work from home for several weeks because she couldn’t wear anything but a loose T-shirt. “My burns were so severe, I couldn’t even reach over to help my children (then ages 4 and 6) in their car seats.”

In March, almost two years from diagnosis, she underwent a state-of-the-art breast reconstruction and says, “The worst is behind me.’’ Except for the hot flashes, followed by chemo-induced menopause, and taking Arimidex for the next five years, her struggle with breast cancer appears to be behind her.

“After it was over (cancer treatments), I realized it was an awakening for me. I needed to appreciate the people in my life more. I didn’t want it to be for nothing. I used to rush through getting my kids to bed. Now I enjoy even the mundane things. Now I’m trying to slow it down and enjoy every moment because you never know how much time you have.”

Karen West is a freelance writer and the mother of two children. She lives on Bainbridge Island.

©2008 Caliope Publishing Company