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Facing the Challenge of Breast Cancer

One Woman's Story of Breast Cancer Survival

By Gwen Morrison

A single parent, Caldwell immediately thought of her daughter. "I was thinking I might die from this," she says. "I'm a single parent. What am I going to do?"

A week and a half later, with her family at her side, she went in for a mastectomy. "The doctor talked to me about radiation and later wrote in his notes that he felt that radiation therapy would not provide me with optimal survival," Caldwell says. "We talked about immediate or delayed reconstruction. He was concerned that there might be a problem closing the wound." So Caldwell decided to wait on the reconstruction.

"I had a lot of support during and after treatment from family and close friends," Caldwell says. "There were numerous groups I could join to sit around and talk about cancer, but that didn't appeal to me. I didn't want to just talk about having cancer, I was interested in the rest of my life being cancer free."

Caldwell had always been very active in sports and outdoor activities prior to her diagnosis and found herself looking for a challenge. "I wanted to have fun and meet other women who had lived through these heinous treatments and wanted to be proactive in their treatment – as I do," Caldwell says. "I joined a group in Seattle called Team Survivor Northwest. After my last radiation treatments were complete and my hair was just growing back, I competed in my first Danskin riathlon."

Want to see more?

• Breast Cancer: Get the Facts
• The Breast Cancer Quiz
• Pregnancy After Breast Cancer: One Woman's Experience
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