How Surviving Breast Cancer Changed Me

Donna Sanderson didn't have breast cancer when she began volunteering for Susan G. Komen for the Cure in 1997. Her love of golf – and the LGPA – led her to the breast cancer charity, which was the beneficiary of a local golf tournament that included some of the best female golfers in the world.

Two months in, and Sanderson, 45 at the time, was diagnosed with breast cancer and started undergoing a mastectomy and chemotherapy. She went on to volunteer for the Komen Sacramento affiliate for nearly eight years, and was hired on as its director. Today she's the interim executive director, and the international race ambassador of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Sanderson, a Carmichael resident, was recently featured in Susan G. Komen for the Cure's "31 Days of Impact" initiative, in which she wrote of the taboo nature of the words "breast" and "cancer" when she was a girl in the 1950s. She spoke with Patch last week about being a breast cancer survivor.

How has your role within the foundation changed you and your views on breast cancer?

It's changed me as a person. I don't relish speaking in public; it's not something that comes natural to me. And I've had friends say 'I could never do that,' and I always felt like I didn't have a choice. I felt someone needs to speak up, especially for women who are under-served. And the same for asking for money, and a lot of the things I do. They're all things I didn't necessarily think I could do, but it's caused me to stretch what I thought my capabilities are.

Talking to women who are newly diagnosed, or going through treatment, or talking to husbands whose wives are going through it, or have died...that always had a personal impact and doubled my resolve to keep working as hard as I could, so we could put an end to the suffering.

I have memories as a little girl, my aunt sitting around the table, and whispering about my aunt in the other room and how she had the 'Big C.' I didn't know what it was, why they were whispering. It was a very different place. We're able to talk about it now.

How has being a breast cancer survivor changed your view of the world, and of yourself?

It's made me a much stronger person emotionally. I just know like when I have been in other very emotional situations, when my parents passed away, I couldn't deal with it. I would say to myself, 'I dealt with getting cancer, so I can get through this.' [I] draw on the strength and knowledge that I got through that, so I can get through anything. I feel fortunate about my survival and don't want to take anything away from women who weren't as fortunate. My goal is to keep women from dying from the disease.

What are some misconceptions about breast cancer and recovery?

Sometimes people underestimate the power of positive thinking. And I've seen it in action, how one's attitude when diagnosed and going thorough treatment can affect [one's] experience. Everyone has their own way of dealing with the diagnosis and treatment, but I've witnessed over and over again the women who take the idea of fighting the disease....are the ones who usually have the best outcomes. And at least their journey through cancer is better experienced than those who give into it and become hopeless.

I think we're getting better at letting women know it's not a death sentence. The survival rate has gone up tremendously...certainly if we get women in early enough, there's a 98 percent survival rate. The key is getting women screened, aware of their bodies and to notice changes. And more people are living with breast cancer than are dying from it.