Can men get breast cancer? For Dana and Bill Everett, this question hits close to home. Yes, males can get breast cancer, and yes, it’s something that’s not discussed frequently.
Since allogeneic transplants are not performed in London, Ontario, my doctor, Dr. Xenacostas, recommended that I go to Roswell Park. Roswell Park has a stellar reputation, so I was grateful, as a Canadian patient, to have the opportunity of getting a BMT there.
In April 2016, a “spot” was discovered on Bonnie Hewett’s liver during a pelvic examination. “It was really found by fluke,” says Bonnie. Her internist advised her to have the spot checked out and Bonnie turned to Roswell Park.
I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (AML) in August 2014. Two weeks later I found out that I would need a blood and marrow transplant (BMT), but I did not match with anyone on the BMT registry. My youngest daughter Kelly was my only hope for a BMT match.
I was 27-years-old and went to my primary care doctor for a sore shoulder and a cough that only happened when I laughed. Given a recent backpacking trip, it made sense when his initial diagnosis was a shoulder strain. But as an extra precaution, he ordered a chest x-ray. That’s when he found the mass under my sternum, near my heart.
For one day every June, more than 10,000 Western New Yorkers make their way to the University at Buffalo and Roswell Park Cancer Institute for The Ride For Roswell. Tom Cunningham and his family, friends and co-workers started riding in 2011 after Tom’s wife, Cheryl, was diagnosed with brain cancer.
On her 25th anniversary of being cancer-free, breast cancer survivor, Heidi Fornes, reflects on her diagnosis and how her outlook changed when she decided to spend just one day with Roswell Park.
I have been battling cancer successfully for 11 years. Looking back at my first diagnosis — stage 2 breast cancer, at age 42 — I downplay it now, because what happened next was so tragic.
As a 25-year cancer survivor, a “veteran” if you will, there is a natural tendency for newly diagnosed cancer patients to gravitate toward me. After all, I’ve “been there done that.”