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Haskell woman finds support from family, friends in breast-cancer battle
Sharon Runyan of Haskell and her husband, Jerry, had big plans for their retirement. Those plans, however, did not include Sharon’s eight-month battle with breast cancer. In October 2013, Sharon, 58 at the time, had just retired from her 34-year teaching career. She and her husband had planned to do a lot of traveling, especially since Jerry had decided to retire at the same time. Plans changed, though, when a routine mammogram revealed a lump in one of Sharon’s breasts. “I think it was a God thing that everything worked out for him to retire, because he was here to take care of me,” Sharon said. Even though Sharon had been vigilant with breast self-exams, the stage 1 cancer wasn’t positioned in a way that could be felt — not even by the doctors. “The lump was very, very small,” she said. “I never felt anything. Even when I went to the surgeon to get confirmation, he said it was small, and even the day of surgery to remove the lump, they said no one could feel it.” Sharon had some experience with breast cancer from when her sister, Pat, had been diagnosed with the disease close to 25 years earlier. Pat’s journey included a double mastectomy and reconstruction, so Sharon was prepared for a similar experience. “It was a little scary. I kept saying, ‘There is a reason for this, and God is going to take care of me, and we are going to get through this,’” Sharon said. “[It helped] knowing that there was that much time between my sister’s [diagnosis] and technology and medical advances since she went through everything.” The plan for ridding Sharon of the cancer was a bit different than her sister’s. Sharon’s plan of action included a lumpectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. Initially, the surgery was anticipated to only remove the cancerous lump, but doctors discovered that the cancer had spread into three of Sharon’s lymph nodes, so those had to be removed as well. After surgery, Sharon began six rounds of chemotherapy. Each one was administered three weeks apart at CARTI in Little Rock, with her middle daughter, Rachel, by her side. After only the first treatment, Sharon’s hair began to fall out. “Some people say it takes awhile, but almost instantly, my hair started coming out,” she said.“I have very fine hair anyway.” Rachel went ahead and shaved her mom’s head soon after the first sign of her hair falling out, but the family support didn’t stop there, and neither did the head-shaving. Each of her three daughters’ now husbands shaved their heads, along with Jerry. “It was emotional, but they were right there, and as long as I had no hair, they had no hair,” Sharon said. As time went on, the chemotherapy began to take a toll on Sharon’s body. She became weak and at times spent days in her bed, which is when she said her husband stepped up as “Mr. Mom.” Sharon’s church family from Salem United Methodist Church in Benton and neighbors poured in with support. From bringing meals to her family to a special phone call from her Sunday school class that she only missed attending a few times, Sharon said she never felt alone in her journey. “There were a couple ladies in the church who had gone through breast cancer, and they were calling to check on me and telling me,‘This is what to expect’ and ‘If you need something, call me,’” she said. Following the chemotherapy, Sharon began radiation treatments, which she said at times were even more tiring than the chemo. Each day for six weeks, Sharon and Jerry made a trip to Little Rock for the treatments. Sharon said each radiation treatment took only about 30 seconds, but the traveling became exhausting. Her love of sewing demonstrated the toll that both treatments took on her body. On a regular basis, Sharon said, she could make a dress for her granddaughter within a day. During chemo and again with radiation, it was taking her weeks to make a single garment. In addition to Sharon’s other two daughters, Rosemary and Catherine, as well as a family member who had recently lost her own daughter to cancer, there were many others who helped Sharon through her cancer treatments. Jerry’s cousin Victoria, who worked as an oncology nurse in another state, offered a special type of support that was invaluable to Sharon and her family. “She was constantly saying, ‘Tell me what your blood tests say, and tell me exactly what is going on,’” Sharon said.“She would tell me what questions to ask if she thought there was a concern.That helped, too — having someone in the medical field who was supporting me.” Almost exactly five years from her initial diagnosis, Sharon is receiving clear scans and appears to be cancer-free. She continues to visit with her oncologist on a yearly basis and continues to take prescription medication and, of course, continues her annual mammograms. Sharon said the support she received from those around her was not unexpected, but it was definitely instrumental in her recovery. “We’ve always been there for each other,” Sharon said.“It kind of confirmed what I had always thought — we would be there for each other, no matter what.”