North Carolina News Employee Shares Breast Cancer Journey

Breast cancer is a life-changing and overwhelming event. Developing this disease is no one’s fault — it cannot be anticipated, and nobody can prepare themselves for it. The best thing to do is to stay as healthy (and happy) as possible. How to deal with breast cancer is a personal choice that varies from individual to individual. Throughout the years, many women have decided to share their personal stories about their breast cancer journeys — and Michal Campbell is one of them.  

Breast cancer is a life-altering diagnosis for anyone. It is no one’s fault when an individual develops this condition; it can’t be predicted, and no one can fully prepare for it. The best thing an individual can do is to keep themselves healthy and happy as much as possible throughout this long fight. How one deals with life after a breast cancer diagnosis is up to the individual. In the past few years, many people have chosen to make use of social media platforms to share their experience with breast cancer and thus bring greater awareness to the disease. One such individual is Michal Campbell. She is a 44-year-old woman who works in the sales department of WBTV. In March, 2017, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother also had breast cancer and eventually passed away due to a rare side effect caused by her chemotherapy treatments. Fearing her family history of cancer, Michal decided to undergo yearly mammograms starting at age 35. She was later diagnosed with stage I cancer, which supposedly had not affected her lymph nodes, but her doctor still asked her to have an MRI scan to be on the safe side. The MRI showed that her lymph nodes looked swollen, so two more biopsies were ordered. One month after her initial diagnosis, she was informed that the tumor was double the size than was previously thought and she was now in stage II. Michal dreaded the thought of chemo, which had taken her mother’s life. However, her cancer turned out to be 100 percent hormone positive and highly unlikely to occur again, so she started hormone therapy as well as radiation therapy to destroy the cancer cells. Michal said that cancer is never easy to deal with, as there is a great deal the individual has to go through and endure. Every morning, she wakes up with thoughts of cancer even though she is well; no one knows if the disease is hiding somewhere else in the body, waiting to come back again. Cancer has a major impact on patients, and it devastates their families as well. There are so many children who have lost their parents and so many parents living without their children, all taken by cancer. Mammograms are not 100 percent reliable in catching everything about this disease, so you need to be your own advocate and make the best decisions in terms of the data you have at hand during that time. Try to surround yourself with close friends and family members who will fight alongside you as well as provide ample support throughout these trying times. There are many women like Michal who have dedicated their lives to sharing their experiences about dealing with cancer to help others cope and find strength.