Ductal carcinoma in situ
The call from my doctor finally comes. “Jackie,” he
says, “I have bad news and I have good news. The bad
news? You have breast cancer. The good news? It’s the
best kind: DCIS ductal carcinoma in situ. I’ve referred you to
the Women’s Breast Health Centre at The Ottawa Hospital.”
In those few seconds, I’m on the road to becoming a
cancer statistic!
Actually, the first step began during a regular
mammogram a week earlier when the technician did extra
filming. Always expecting the worst, I was suspicious.
Knowing that my doctor had holidays scheduled, I asked his
office to notify me by phone as soon as he got the results.
However, I can’t say I was surprised by the diagnosis. I
knew the risk factors, i.e. I was a woman, of “certain age”
and, most important, my Mother had lost her fight with breast
cancer in 1985.
But being intellectually aware of breast cancer and the
resources available, hearing the words and my name in the
same sentence, my stomach felt like it was in a vice, my
tongue seemed to have doubled in size, my head started to
spin and my breathing seemed to stop.
What should I do? How and what should I tell my
family? And how will they react? Will they be as frightened
as me?
Where is the instruction book? Who would give me the
rules of the cancer world that I had just entered?
Since it was March, 1998, only four months since the
end of my political career, having served for 15 years on
Ottawa Council, the last six as Mayor, I believed that I still
had a role to play in making a difference in people’s lives.
Using my situation as a means of raising awareness for
the need for early cancer detection, and encouraging women
to get themselves checked, I put my face on breast cancer
and decided to make a public announcement. It was not my
style to hide my journey along the road as a cancer statistic.
My husband and family agreed and promised their support.
In a month or so, the Ottawa Race Weekend would
take place and, with the encouragement and assistance of
the Ottawa Citizen, MDS Nordion and The Ottawa Hospital,
my cancer was announced and a fund raising campaign was
launched for the Women’ Breast Health Centre as part of the
Race Weekend. My daughter, Ellyn, accepted a challenge to
run the 10 K and together we would raise money for the
Centre.
If one wanted to raise awareness, where better than
with a larger than life picture of my face on the front page of
the Citizen above the fold!!!!
My personal journey along the road to my successful
treatment and recovery was joined by hundreds of family,
friends, professionals and organizations such as Breast
Cancer Action. I learned that no one need travel it alone.
Well, as they say, the rest is history. Not only have my
daughter and I raised over $200,000 for cancer care and
research at The Ottawa Hospital and the Ottawa Health
Research Institute in the 10 years since the first Race
Weekend, but hundreds of women brushed aside their fears
and jammed the phone lines rushing to have their
mammograms. Some even went as a group and had lunch
afterwards!!
Each person will have a different experience when the
word ‘cancer’ is linked with his or her name. Our reactions
will not be the same. However, it should be reassuring for
those who will become cancer statistics to know that more
people are living after cancer treatment than dying.
Greater awareness on the importance of living a
healthy lifestyle combined with the increased emphasis on
developing new and quicker diagnostic techniques and more
effective less invasive treatment offers hope for a future
without cancer.
Cancer WILL be beaten!!!
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