My Breast Cancer Journey - a Guest Blog Series by Savanna James (part 4 of 5 “Survivors”)

This is the fourth in a five-part guest blog series by Savanna James discussing her breast cancer journey. See the first installment here. I hope you'll read and share them all!

I’ve had countless conversations with survivors, and survivorship for young adults can be summed up as “70 years of looking over your shoulder waiting for the cancer to return.” And because of this...more than anything...we don’t just want to survive, we want to thrive. 

Enter The Boon Project. 

This amazing organization exists “to combat the increased rates of isolation and depression in young adult cancer fighters and survivors, as well as to equip them with resources in their fight to help increase survival rates. The mission of the organization is to support young adult cancer fighters and their unique needs, through providing beneficial programs and creating a cooperative cancer fighting culture that works to heal the whole patient.”

And as they say at Boon, with a cancer diagnosis, you become a member of the club that no one wants to join. They combat this with the Courage Club, a free online support community and monthly meet up group for young adult cancer fighters and survivors in the Lowcountry (and beyond) to connect with others who understand the battles that come from a cancer diagnosis as a young adult. They also provide financial assistance, mental health resources and access to guidance which helps facilitate care and second opinions. 

In June 2021, I will compete for the title of Miss South Carolina, an honor I hope I have that I have the chance of receiving. Regardless of the outcome, I know that my purpose is to continue serving my community and being a voice for my fellow survivors and fighters. 

My hope is that fellow survivors, and those going through treatments or a recent diagnosis, use my story to help look at their situations in a different light, and that others can see my story and understand the need for support and comfort, not only during treatment but through the years after. It is one thing to hear a statistic, but it is another to put an actual face behind that number. The scenario becomes so much more real. It goes from something you see in a textbook to your neighbor, your co-worker or even your family. 

Cancer is an ugly word that strikes fear into hearts, creating an overwhelming feeling of powerlessness, but let me be the first to tell you that you do NOT have to feel powerless. You aren’t any less of a human for what you’re going through and feeling. 

Cancer doesn't define you. And that is a lesson I have to learn on a consistent basis.

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I hope you'll come back next week for the final installment of her story. 

My Breast Cancer Journey - a Guest Blog Series by Savanna James (part 3 of 5 “After My Double Mastectomy")

 This is the third in a five-part guest blog series by Savanna James discussing her breast cancer journey. See the first installment here. I hope you'll read and share them all!

On February 10, 2020, I woke up calm and unafraid. I knew that my life would never be the same, but I had found my purpose - to share my story. And on that day, at 7am, I underwent my own double mastectomy and reconstruction at 24 years old. 

The surgery was a success...but it wasn’t over. 

What is harder to discuss, and what is rarely talked about, is the fact that when treatments end, your journey is just beginning. There is so much left in life that goes beyond a diagnosis, but, yet, is still so greatly affected by it. 

After the surgery, I was faced with the dark reality that my journey wasn’t finished just because I had completed the procedures. Every single moment for the rest of my life, I have to live with the constant reminder of what I went through and what I will continue to go through. This realization was probably the hardest part of the entire journey for me.

I mean, let’s get real here. I lost my boobs before I hit the age of 25. No, literally. I lost them. They scooped them out, as I like to say. Subsequently, I cannot feel them and certain parts of my chest and I will never be able to breastfeed my children. I look like I’ve been cut in half right and then sewn back together multiple times. It’s not pretty by any means and it’s definitely something that is hard to swallow when you’re in the middle of the pageant world or even just in young adulthood. 

For all cancer survivors, when treatments end, your journey is just beginning. There is so much left in this life that goes beyond a diagnosis, but, yet, is still affected by it. After treatment, a lot of young adults are left feeling less of an actual human, much less a young adult with a whole life ahead of them. Please understand that there are struggles beyond cancer treatment. Truly, have you thought about the effects on a person’s mental and physical health that exist outside of the cancer itself? 

There are so many and I won’t list all of them for you, for that in itself is impossible, but they include problems with heart disease, fertility issues, autoimmune diseases, body insecurities, financial struggles and PTSD. 

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I hope you'll come back next week for the fourth installment of her story. 

My Breast Cancer Journey - a Guest Blog Series by Savanna James (Part 2 of 5 “Pre Surgery”)

This is the second in a five-part guest blog series by Savanna James discussing her breast cancer journey. See the first installment here. I hope you'll read and share them all.

Photo by
Deanna Webber Photography

We are more than pink. We are people. We are friends. We are daughters, sisters, mothers, co-workers, aunts, even fathers and brothers. We are never defined by a stigma and we are never alone. And we do not have to feel that way. As a human, all you need is hope, and, for that, we have each other.

I’m going to be beyond vulnerable here, but knowing that my story could help save at least once person is what saved my life and kept me fighting. In that moment, and every single day since, I had to learn how to take a situation that is so undesirable and turn it into a platform for change and awareness. I began to see an opportunity, not a closed, boarded door. This is what kept, and keeps, me fighting each and every day to do a little bit better, to be a little bit better and to share my story to at least one more person.

On January 11, 2020, I competed in a local preliminary pageant for Miss South Carolina. 

Crazy, right? I was less than a month away from something that could either save my life, or end it, and I was pageant prepping. Let me explain. In the middle of all of the chaos, I knew that  despite whatever the outcome would be on February 10, I had at least a month to let my voice be heard if I won. The Miss South Carolina and Miss America Organizations were, and still are, my best shot at getting that recognized platform for people to listen. I knew people would listen. I just had to take the chance. 

That night, I was crowned Miss Summerville and I saw a light

starting to form at the end of the tunnel. I spent the next weeks going to as many events, making as many posts, making as many connections, and talking to every single person that I could. If I was going out, I was going out with a bang. 

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I hope you'll come back next week for the third installment of her story. 

My Breast Cancer Journey - a Guest Blog Series by Savanna James (Part 1 of 5 “My Diagnosis”)

This is the first in a five-part guest blog series by Savanna James discussing her breast cancer journey. I hope you'll read and share them all.

“You have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” - Hamilton

At the start of all of this, in October 2019, I went into my yearly OB-GYN (breast appointment) thinking I was being preventative, as I had every other year. I didn’t feel different. I didn’t look different. In fact, I felt better than I had in years. I was in a new city (Charleston, South Carolina) where the possibilities for where my life could go seemed endless.

But quickly, that was shattered with what they found. 

It turned out that instead of being preventative, that appointment was life saving. I had a spot in my right breast. I was quickly sent to a surgeon who specializes in breast cancer and I prepared myself for what was coming.

I had watched countless family members and friends go through it. They were all older than me, but some, not by much. It was devastating. You began to see the shell of what once was such a lively person as the treatments went on. How was I supposed to go on like this?

From the day I met with the surgeons, I continued asking myself why I was put in the situation to have to make this decision at the age of 24. What haunted me even more so, though, was that I knew that most women my age were not even aware that this disease was a threat to them currently. 
But I didn’t have time to ponder and think about the greatness that could arise from this situation, as preparations began immediately. The surgery was scheduled. I felt like I had the death certificate for my future in my hands. 

I wouldn’t live whatever time I had left in vain. I reached out to the South Carolina chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation as soon as I discovered that I would be having this surgery. They work to help raise funds for both research and basic needs for patients. This includes funding for things like groceries, transportation, therapy and other items that are essential to everyday life. I sat with Lucy Spears in a local James Island coffee shop and I never felt more understood and heard. Lucy is now the Executive Director of Komen SC and that woman gives everything she can to an organization that means so much to her. You see, she’s a survivor as well.

Photo by
Deanna Webber Photography

 

We sat there for hours talking about how I was feeling, what my plans were, the struggles I was facing, my experience with Komen in the past, and then Lucy asked me a question that really did change my life...

“Will you share your story?”

And without a second of thought, I responded, “Absolutely.”

Did I know that there would be days that this answer would haunt me because I didn’t even feel like a human myself? No. 

Did I know that there would be days that this answer saved my life? No. 

But what I did know is that by creating awareness, we can catch breast cancer early enough that a patient is presented with options, not an ultimatum. Hope is crucial in fighting a disease like this, and I want others to know that they aren’t alone. 

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I hope you'll come back next week for the second installment of her story.