Michelle Pammenter Young has spent most of her working life in sales, having sold both insurance and computers in addition to running her own business for eight years. During all that time she never imagined she might, unwittingly, find a second calling as a writer, inspirational speaker and self-proclaimed "Cancer Warrior."
The events that led her down that new path began to unfold in March 2012, but life as she'd known it until then really changed a year ago - on June 8, 2012, to be exact.
It was in March that she first decided - without any real indication that anything might be wrong - to undergo a mammogram. One botched attempt, an MRI and an exploratory biopsy finally led to the phone call from her doctor that led to the ominous-sounding diagnosis.
"They did the biopsy on June 7. On June 8, I was in Brackendale biking with my husband and the doctor called and said it was inflammatory breast cancer," said the Squamish wife and mother of two.
She immediately looked up inflammatory breast cancer on the Internet and learned that one per cent of all breast cancers are of the inflammatory variety. She also learned that women who are diagnosed with it have an average life expectancy of 18 months.
A few days after that call, Pammenter Young's oncologist told her that her cancer was malignant and that during the two-plus months since that initial mammogram, the cancer had advanced from Stage 1 to Stage 3c. In a hopeful sign, it had yet to metasticize - i.e. spread to other organs.
"I asked the doctor whether there was some natural treatment - something I could do besides chemo - and he said, 'If you don't start chemo tomorrow, in three months you'll be dead,'" she said.
The next few months, which Pammenter Young has chronicled in her self-published book The Year I Died: A Memoir, were a nightmarish whirlwind of chemical and radiation treatments that brought varying degrees of discomfort - from the nausea induced by chemotherapy to the second-degree burns and hair loss from radiation treatments.
During the ordeal her brother was murdered in Surrey. And it didn't end there.
"In the middle of this second bout of chemo, my mother died... so last year wasn't very pleasant with all this trauma, but I kept just saying, 'Get your ass down to Lions Gate to get those treatments."
Her determination to do whatever she could to do battle with the scourge of cancer may, it turns out, have been a lifeline.
Just two months ago, Pammenter Young underwent surgery, which she described as "the hardest stage I've had to go through so far." The surgery involved the removal of tissue from her breast area and right arm.
After the surgery, "I was so sick I couldn't sit up, but they forced me to sit up to start the muscles and blood moving again. It was just such an achievement to be able to walk from my bed to the door," she said.
Since the operation, Pammenter Young has been told that no cancer has been found and that if it remains so through August, her five-year survival rate increases from 20 to 80 per cent. And if she makes it through the five years, her oncologist told her, "'I'll give you another 25 to 30 years. That was the best news I could have gotten.'"
She said she believes the immense support from family and friends has helped her get this far.
"I'm not a religious person, but I strongly believe that all those prayers of my friends and relatives have played a role and I have to feel that that matters and I'm going to live a lot longer," Pammenter Young said. "I've told my husband that I'm going to grow old with him and I'm sticking to that."
While continuing her recovery, Pammenter Young embarked on a brief speaking tour to northern B.C. in support of The Year I Died. As well, she has started on a second book titled, "The Cancer Warrior Handbook," which she describes "a funny, down-to-Earth handbook on how to live through chemo, radiation, etc." It will include "tips that the doctor may not have told you," she said.
Graphic artist Sara Mortimer is designing illustrations for the book, she said.
Her friend Pascale Gadbois of Squamish-based Gadbois Photography is also producing a video about Pammenter Young's ordeal, "a documentary that will shine some light on the beauty that can lie within each one of us," Pammenter Young wrote.
Thirdly, she's putting together what she's calling "Warrior Bags" - gift baskets to help recently diagnosed cancer patients pamper themselves. They will include lap blankets, facial lotions, hand-crafted soaps, wash cloths and food items, she said. The bags will be sent free to cancer patients, she said.
To that end, Pammenter Young and her supporters have set up a page on the fundraising site Indiegogo to raise $9,200 between now and the end of June to cover the cost of professional editing and graphic design for the book, a book tour and promotion of the book and documentary, the cost of creating a website for the Warrior Bags and of assembling and sending out the first 100 bags. At last check some $1,250 had been raised. For more information, www.indiegogo.com/projects/giving-back-and-creating-awareness
She's also scheduled to speak about The Year I Died and her ordeal during an author visit to the Squamish Public Library on Thursday (June 6) from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Admission is free.
