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Recognizing Breast Cancer Awareness Month
How could this happen to me? That’s the question a lot of women ask when they’re told they have breast cancer. This year in Wisconsin, just over 6,000 will be diagnosed with the disease. For one woman, her journey taught her some life lessons not only about her physical health but at 69 years old, the need to keep moving.
MILWAUKEE - How could this happen to me? That is the question a lot of women ask when they are told they have breast cancer.
This year in Wisconsin, just over 6,000 women will be diagnosed with the disease. For one woman, her journey taught her some life lessons not only about her physical health, but at 69 years old, the need to keep moving.
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What they're saying:
It is an early morning for Kathy Gladfelter as she steps into her role as a member of the Dancing Grannies. The beloved Milwaukee dance troupe is always on fire with their flashy uniforms and fancy footwork. But while they are poised and their routines are polished, there is one thing many of them have been told: "You have breast cancer."
"Nobody wants to be surprised," Gladfelter said.
Kathy Gladfelter
Gladfelter wondered how it could happen to someone like her – active, traveling, taking good care of herself and doing her monthly self-exams. Still, her annual mammogram showed otherwise, and now she is grateful she never let a year slip by without that exam.
"I'm glad that I went every year. I mean, you just don't know how things are going to turn out if you don't," she said.
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The backstory:
Gladfelter was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma. She said it grows "more like a web," as opposed to a lump. It was HER2-positive, so it "grew very aggressively."
"There's a lot of very uncomfortable things that come out of chemotherapy, and those were times when I would probably feel kind of sorry for myself," she said. "You know, why me?"
Kathy Gladfelter
The Minnesota native knew she had to fight through the frustration and sadness, and through it all found a way to cope by putting pen to paper.
"I'm not a big journaling person, but I did for this," Gladfelter said. "I bought myself a breast cancer notebook, and I journaled just about every day about how I was feeling, and that was really quite helpful.
Why you should care:
Gladfelter credits her daughter and grandkids for help to keep going. Family, and the extended family she has with that fiery group she dances with, provide her with all the mental support she needs to keep moving forward.
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"We are a sisterhood, yeah, it's true. I have more friends now than I ever did. Grade school, junior high, high school, college, work," she said. "I never had 50 friends, 50 girlfriends.
What's next:
Gladfelter is cancer free and planning her next great adventure: a trip to Norway.
"I've learned from other survivors, traveling," she said. "Everybody is born with an expiration date on the bottom of their foot, and you don't know what that date is, so you may as well go and travel. I'm not wasting any time."
The Source: Information in this story was gathered from Kathy Gladfelter and FOX6 News reporting.