“Even though I had so many people around me it still felt so lonely – Karen Sanderson
SURVIVOR: Wimmera Health Care Group oncology nurse Karen Sanderson went from caring for cancer patients to battling the disease herself. This year will mark 20 years she has supported Relay for Life. She provides insight into her own personal battle on page
Early, treatable and possibly curable! These are the words oncology nurse and breast-cancer survivor Karen Sanderson wants people to remember.
Karen, from Horsham, said early detection of her right-side breast cancer in July 2018 and her large support system including her husband Stuart Sanderson, friends and family is what aided her recovery.
She found respite from the disease in June 2019 after 12 months of receiving treatments of chemotherapy, 16 days of radiotherapy and multiple surgeries.
Karen, still a practising oncology nurse at Wimmera Health Care Group, said even with her knowledge of the process of treating the disease, little could prepare her for what she would go through.
“Working at the cancer centre – I went from giving patients cancer drugs, to receiving it. I knew the steps involved. But I could never prepare myself for the initial shock and information overload that would follow,” she said.
“I don’t think it really hit me until I started losing my hair. Until then it was all based around the appointments and the information.”
Karen said the hardest part of the treatment would be the combination of hair loss and having to undergo a partial mastectomy.
“I cannot imagine how women who have to go through a full mastectomy feel,” she said.
“Finding clothes that fit nicely becomes difficult.
“The worst was the hair loss. Most women define themselves with the way they look. That was probably the hardest part.”
Karen said coming out the other side of her treatment had provided her with strength.
“To me a lot of people say the glass is half-empty. It’s not. It’s half-full. How I choose to fill the rest of it is up to me. So, I choose to live the best life I can,” she said.
“I have four grandchildren – I want to see them grow up. I want to see them have kids. So, I choose to live, I don’t choose to live negatively.
“Too many people supported me for that 12 months for me to the let them down. So, I’m not going to, especially Stuart.
“We’ve been married going on 43 years. He wasn’t going to let me go.
“I had to fight for him, my kids and grandkids. I wanted to be around to see my great-grandchildren.”
Even with a large network of support, Karen said there were times she felt isolated.
“Even though I had so many people around me, it still felt so lonely. I isolated myself a bit, probably because I didn’t want to be a burden on anyone else,” she said.
“It felt like a long time, but at the same time it was a short period of time.
“In saying that it was no walk in the park. I had severe ups and downs – of feeling emotional, while feeling mentally and physically fatigued.
“The drug not only kills the bad cells, but it also takes the healthy cells. So, you’re put into a suppressed state. Your immunity really drops, so you isolate yourself even more.”
After her experience, Karen said she would like see people be more conscious of their health.
“The screenings allow for a chance of decreasing the fatality rate. Early, treatable, curable,” she said.
“The earlier you get screened, the more treatable it is and the higher chance there is of it being curable.”
She said too often people let their health go by the wayside.
“A lot of farmers will leave things until it’s too late, which is the mentality of a lot of men,” she said.
“Things have got to be done before their health.
“And when women have kids, their children come first. Your health is put on the back burner when you’ve got young children.
“Everyone has a chance of getting it, it doesn’t discriminate. If you’re young, old, rich or poor.
“When I was training, I saw young children with it, people in their 20s, and some didn’t survive. It’s one of the things we don’t have a good handle on treating.”
Karen has been supporting Relay for Life for nearly 20 years, since she moved to Horsham.
She will be lighting one of three candles representing the past, present and future of battlers of cancer at the opening ceremony.
Karen, who will be taking preventive medication for up to seven years, said she would light the ‘present’ candle to symbolise her ongoing battle with cancer.
Horsham and District’s Relay for Life will be at Coughlin Park starting Friday afternoon.
The annual event involves teams and individuals relaying around the park oval for 18 hours to raise money for Cancer Council Australia.
Wimmera Cancer Centre manager Carmel O’kane will be guest speaker at the relay’s ‘Survivors and Carers’ function this year.
The gathering follows the opening ceremony at 5.45pm on Friday and the first relay lap honouring carers and survivors, led by Horsham City Pipe Band.
At 9pm there will be a candlelight ceremony with music from Wimmera Cancer Centre’s therapeutic musician Rachel Gellert, playing the harp, before relaying continues throughout the night until noon on Saturday.