This mom has plenty to celebrate on Mother’s Day
ASTON » At 5:30 a.m. Sunday, hours before most mothers are opening their eyes to breakfast in bed, Patti Ann Hamre will be lacing up her sneakers and anticipating the special Mother’s Day about to unfold. By 5:45 a.m., several cars will pull up at Hamre’s home. Her mother Pat Unruh, her daughter Kaitlyn McDevitt, and a team of seven other close friends will pile into two cars for the ride to Eakins Oval, in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the Parkway, where the 2018 Susan G. Komen Race for The Cure will kick off at 7 a.m. Hamre’s “Team Wonder Woman” will begin the 1-mile fun walk alongside of thousands of others who will participate in the 28th annual Susan G. Komen 5K race and 5K walk to earn funds for local breast cancer programs and research.
The long journey that will give special meaning to Sunday’s event began for Hamre in 2016. For 13 years, she was running a successful cleaning business, “Affordable Cleaning.” It was a relatively busy time of her life, she says, when she first felt the large lump during a self-exam of her breast. Her only child was about to begin her freshman year at Rosemont College and a bunch of her good friends were about to turn 50, and she was busy planning parties for them.
Even though the mammogram did not show cancer, Hamre said she had a gut feeling that something wasn’t right. After several more tests, she went to a breast surgeon who did a skin biopsy. Hamre was on a family vacation in California when she received the call saying her biopsy was positive for breast cancer.
The 49-year-old was on her way to Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia two days later, after returning to Delaware County.
“The worst part was telling my mom, my daughter and my clients that I was sick,” Hamre explained. “And as the treatments progressed, it became more and more difficult for me to run my business.”
After more testing, the 7.3 centimeter lump in Hamre’s breast turned out not to be inflammatory, as the doctors originally thought, and she was officially diagnosed with Stage 3A breast cancer. Her mother started prayer chains that went around the world. Hamre started treatment under oncologist Dr. John Sprandio at Crozer Keystone at Broomall.
In the past two years, Hamre underwent chemotherapy, a bilateral mastectomy and DIEP deep flap surgery, then radiation. She documented her journey on her Facebook page, not to sadden her Facebook friends, she says, but to inspire others and give them more of an appreciation of life. During all of this hardship, she had unwavering support from her mother and father, daughter, best friend Denise Oldham, close friend Janice Dilbeck, both of Aston, and a group of about 40 other dear friends, many of whom that she has known since childhood.
“Sometimes I looked at my cancer recovery process as a gift because when else would you have chunks of time to just talk, really talk, with your friends and family?” Hamre asked rhetorically. “We had so many good conversations and laughs while riding in the car going and coming from my treatments and during them. We’re all so busy, all of the time, and this uninterrupted quality time with my friends and family was just such an unexpected gift that I received. I treasure it.”
Hamre is a member of the Sun Valley Class of 1984. Her tight circle of friends from childhood and high school expanded through her years as a bartender at the former Pennant and Bones & Co. taverns in Ridley Township, and through the years as a young mother. Little did she know that her tightknit group of friends would someday be her lifeline and her circle of support.
“Our friends group just kept expanding through our adult years,” Hamre smiled during a recent interview. “We would have cook-outs, bonfires, rent shore houses together, go to parties and showers when our children were younger, and just really all enjoyed hanging out together.”
Her mom, daughter and this group of friends took Hamre to doctor appointments and treatments, and kept her spirits up. They made a volunteer schedule so that every day hot meals would be delivered by one of them to Hamre’s doorstep. Her circle of support threw a huge fundraiser at Tom and Jerry’s last April and raised $8,000 to help her pay bills when her business lapsed. Her daughter Kaitlyn organized a breast cancer awareness walk at Rosemont last October. Her friends installed a new heater and put a new roof on her home. And they expanded the prayer chains and prayed.
Her prayer army nicknamed her “Wonder Woman” to signify the fighting super hero she had become.
“Every single day,a different little Wonder Woman reminder would appear to bolster my spirits,” Hamre said. “My friends and family gave me Wonder Woman books, shirts, cards, plants, blankets — you name it.”
The multitude of prayers paid off. Halfway through her chemo rounds, her lump had shrunk to 1.3 centimeters in size.
“The doctor was even amazed. He said that rarely ever happens to such a degree in such a short time,” Hamre remembered. “We know it was all the prayers.”
Although Hamre is not totally out of the woods yet, and is still undergoing treatment and experiencing unpleasant side effects like restless leg syndrome, neuropathy, excessive sweating and more, she says that she is grateful at least to know that her treatment is bringing positive results. She will have to take a chemo pill for the next 5-10 years. Throughout the ordeal, Hamre’s business suffered.
“I was down to about two clients,” she said. “I had to just concentrate on getting well.”
Following her surgery, during their daily
rides to radiation, Hamre and friend Janice Dilbeck started thinking around ideas to get her business back on track. Dilbeck worked as the director of national sales at Iron Mountain, a global business dedicated to storing, protecting and managing, information and assets, for 20 years and had a strong business background.
“Breast cancer had basically destroyed Pattiann’s ability to run her business,” Dilbeck stated. “I said to her that we needed to switch that around and use the breast cancer to bring back her ability to earn a living. What will differentiate Wonder Maids from other companies is that it will give back and support breast cancer research.”
They partnered with the Susan G. Komen Foundation in the fall of 2017 and rebranded her cleaning business as “Wonder Maids.” Wonder Maids donates 2 percent of profits to the Susan G. Komen Foundation and continually promotes awareness of breast cancer and the need for more research. David Rooks, a friend of Hamre since childhood, rede-
signed her brochures and business logo to incorporate her “Wonder Woman” persona.
“We’re now cleaning for the cure,” Hamre said proudly about herself and her team of five cleaners that serve Delaware County with a wide variety of cleaning services. “You have to give back and you have to keep talking about breast cancer and the need for more research. When women first get the diagnosis of breast cancer, they literally fall to the ground in fear. We need to find a way to give these women hope. What we really need to do is find a cure.”
On Sunday, the “Wonder Woman” team for the Race For the Cure will consist of Dilbeck as team captain, as well as Hamre’s mom and daughter, her “bestie” Denise Oldham and Denise’s daughters Brianna and Jackqueline Oldham, friends Amanda Keidel, Merle Gilbert, Dave McDevitt and, of course, Hamre.
“I can’t think of any better way to spend Mother’s Day than with my mom, my daughter and some of my closest friends, all walking to bring awareness to breast cancer,” Hamre said this week. “I could never express how much I love my mother. She is one in a million. My mother has been my rock and at my side during my entire fight against cancer. She kept me going at times when I just didn’t know if I could do it anymore. She nursed me back to health and is always there for me.”
Following Sunday’s race, Hamre will join her mom and daughter and best friend Denise and her daughters for lunch at Anthony’s restaurant in Drexel Hill.
“The one thing that I appreciate after going through all of this is just being with everyone,” Hamre said. “I love spending time with family and friends. Going through this has taught me to see a different side of so many people and appreciate and love them even more. I am so grateful for my mom, my daughter and my friends. I am just grateful to be able to breathe and enjoy life with those I love.”