Kelly's Story from Arizona

When Kelly found a lump in her right breast, three different doctors told her not to worry about it, that at 27 she was too young to have breast cancer.


This despite the fact that she had Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system, at 17 and that her mother had died from an aggressive form of breast cancer.

"One gynecologist laughed me out of her office because I was too young. She said, 'People your age don't get breast cancer' " said Kelly. "I guess she was wrong."

Kelly, who had never before performed a breast self-examination, found the lump when she did an exam one night when she couldn't sleep. At her husband's urging, she kept seeking medical care and had a mammogram, a sonogram and a biopsy to check if the lump was cancerous. It was.

At the advice of her oncologist, Marilyn Croghan, who Kelly calls an angel, Kelly had a mastectomy to remove the cancerous lump. Earlier radiation treatment for Hodgkin's disease prevented her from having more radiation, so she followed the surgery with chemotherapy.
During treatment, Kelly attended a breast cancer support group but stopped going because her age made her feel out of place.

"Everyone kept saying, 'Oh, you're just a baby,' " she said.

After her mastectomy and chemotherapy, Kelly started wearing a prosthesis and a wig to teach her second-grade class at Erickson Elementary School.

"It was like Halloween every day," she said. Her Jell-O-like fake breast came in a box, and artificial hair had to be placed atop her bald head. "It's like getting up and putting on a costume every day to be a normal person."

Now, almost five years later, Kelly looks the picture of health, with flowing locks and pink skin that no longer bears a sallow hue from chemotherapy.

After taking about a year and a half break from hospitals, Kelly had a mastectomy on her healthy breast, to remove further risk, and saline implants to eliminate the need for the awkward prosthesis.

Now, the 32-year-old has beaten her second go-round with cancer and jokes that she has already scheduled an appointment with her oncologist for when she turns 37.

Kelly thanks Croghan and her husband, Burr, for helping her survive.

"People always ask me, "How did you get through this?" she said. "You just do. You have to take it one day at a time. You have to look at each day as its own little victory."

Kelly maintains a Web site (www.azstarnet.com/~pud) with her twin sister, Tricia Marrapodi, where breast cancer survivors can read information and post messages about hope and fear, death and survival.

As a preventive measure, Marrapodi had her healthy breast tissue removed with a prophylactic mastectomy. While Marrapodi did not have cancer, she said the procedure has saved her a lifetime of worry. "It just lifted the weight of the world off my shoulders," she said. "And my chest."

Kelly hopes the Web site and speaking out on the subject will inspire young women to trust their instincts and get a second, third or fourth opinion if they think a lump may be cancerous.

"Everything happens for a reason," she said. "Maybe my reason was to raise cancer awareness among young people - and that's OK."

Tucson, Arizona