Our "A Calendar to Live By" features 11 women we serve through Here for the Girls programs and their inspiring stories about their cancer journey. Sadly, July's model, Shawna passed away one year ago this month from metastatic breast cancer, before the calendar was even published. This month, as her photo graces our wall, let us take time to honor her and all the women who have died of this disease.
Here's is Shawna's story as it appears in the calendar:
42, Diagnosed at 32, 36
3rd degree relative – no known genetic mutation
A devoted mom, volunteer, military wife, and former Air Force weapons loader, Shawna was vacationing at Disney World with her family when she felt a large lump while showering. Nodules in her breast tested several months earlier had come back benign, but taking no chances, Shawna returned to her doctor. A biopsy followed by a lumpectomy revealed stage III breast cancer. She had chemotherapy, a bilateral mastectomy, radiation, and eventually, reconstruction. Four years later, she learned the cancer had metastasized to her liver. She has been in treatment ever since. Shortly after this second diagnosis, she and her family moved to Virginia where she found Beyond Boobs! Shawna shares, “The women of BB! ‘deal you in’ and make you smile—in the calendar, on Facebook, in the meetings. Just a smile. That’s what has helped me.” Usually averse to the limelight, Shawna said she applied to be in the calendar because “I have a story to tell,” and shares, “Obstacles are always there. It’s what you do with them, how you empower yourself and educate others that will get you through.” For Shawna, cancer has not been a death sentence but instead, “a sentence of life and the courage to live it.”