Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

By Jill Sperling

Breast Cancer Awareness

Kamloops breast cancer survivor advocates for screening and awareness

Oct 8, 2020 | 4:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, an estimated one in eight Canadian women will develop breast cancer in their lifetimes. While many will survive a diagnosis, breast cancer remains the second leading case of death from cancer for Canadian women.

One Kamloops woman won the battle with cancer, but she’s still fighting the war of side effects from the treatment.

Sharon Senger was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, finishing her treatments in 2015. She was 44 years old when she first noticed something was not right.

“I was randomly going to work one day putting makeup on in my bathroom and I lifted my arm up to put my mascara and as I did so I saw a dimple in my breast,” Senger said. “Never saw it (before)… and had I not been not dressed I wouldn’t have known, I never would have noticed.”

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Soon, Senger would begin her cancer journey.

“Just the start date of all the testing and everything was actually today (Oct. 8) of 2013 and after that October 16 was the day that I was diagnosed with two types of breast cancer. Then the day I was to start my chemo, which was December 11, got postponed to December 12 of 2013 because they found out I had a third type called HER2.”

The treatment to battle the aggressive cancer was intense. During chemotherapy, one of the drugs Senger was taking began attacking her nervous system. She also developed a condition called lymphedema, which causes swelling, resulting from the removal of lymph nodes as part of treatment.

“My doctor at one point along the way nicknamed me Side Effect Sally, which I thought was quite appropriate,” Senger said. “You just sort of bob and weave your way through. I really believe that no matter what I’m going through, there’s always someone worse off than me.”

Through it all, her friends and family have been a constant source of encouragement and support.

“You really find out how you affect people when you get sick,” Senger said. “I never knew the people that I touched, throughout my lifetime from the time I was a child to present, I never had a clue. They really came together and they’re still rallying around me.”

Senger encourages anyone with a cancer diagnosis to lean on their loved ones for support and encourages others to pay attention to their health.

“I used to live by the motto, ‘What I don’t know won’t hurt me.’ Not true. What you don’t know can kill you. So, be aware and be informed and do what you can to get yourself checked.”