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Sharing cancer’s heavy load

It was a gruelling time for Mary Ann LeClair and her family.Just two weeks after a lump was discovered in her breast in 2004, her youngest sister, Debbie Masson, was also diagnosed with breast cancer.
Photo by Lana Michlin/Advocate staff
Mary Ann LeClair Brest cancer
Mary Ann LeClair

It was a gruelling time for Mary Ann LeClair and her family.

Just two weeks after a lump was discovered in her breast in 2004, her youngest sister, Debbie Masson, was also diagnosed with breast cancer.

“It was really hard on the family. They had enough with just one of us having breast cancer, then they had to deal with two of us,” LeClair recalled.

As a positive person, the Red Deer library assistant saw one silver lining in the situation. She believes it was easier to go through treatments with someone else knowing exactly how she was feeling. “It was great to have somebody so close to you there.”

LeClair’s cancer diagnosis came as a shock at first but she never considered not being around for her young son. “I thought, I’m going to live to see him graduate. I’m going to live to see my grandchildren.”

The first part of her prediction has already come true — LeClair’s son graduated from high school in June “and I’m still here,” said the 52-year-old, whose sister is, so far, cancer-free.

While LeClair’s cancer has since spread to her liver and spine, she’s continued to fight it with radiation, then another round of chemotherapy. She was recently buoyed by the news her tumours are starting to shrink.

If she feels healthy enough, LeClair plans to be among the 1,000 runners who will participate on Oct. 3 in the 10th-annual Run for the Cure fundraiser to raise money for breast cancer awareness and research. It will be her third time doing the one-km or five-km run that starts at 9:30 a.m. at Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School.

Cheryl Riley, 59, also plans to run in the fundraiser, which is expected to raise $200,000 for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

“It’s important that everybody understands there is hope and you can survive it,” said Riley, whose cancer was discovered through a routine mammogram in 2008.

Although Riley had been getting annual scans because her mother and aunt had breast cancer, her own diagnosis was traumatic — so was losing her hair from chemotherapy.

But her family, including her husband, parents, two daughters and grandson, rallied around her.

Riley remembers her mother coming over to help shave the rest of her hair off once large clumps began falling. “My grandson told me he buzzes his hair off all the time. He said, ‘It’s OK Nana, we’ll be bald together.’ ”

Riley opted to have a mastectomy and chemotherapy in Red Deer and, so far, her cancer has not re-occurred.

According to statistics from the Canadian Cancer Society/National Cancer Institute of Canada, the incidence of breast cancer in Canada has stabilized since 1999.

The mortality rate for females with breast cancer decreased to 21.4 per 100,000 in 2010, compared with 1986, when the rate was 32 per 100,000. Longer survival likely results from improvements in screening and advances in treatment.

To find out more about Run for the Cure, call the hotline at 403-340-3959. To register, go online to www.cbcf.org or pick up a form at any CIBC branch.

lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com