Lauren Campbell, a 49-year-old mother of three, was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer caught early by routine mammogram. She describes telling her sons, enduring chemotherapy side effects like nausea and hair loss, and facing upcoming surgery and radiation. Her mother died of pancreatic cancer in 2006, fueling her commitment to cancer research advocacy.
I'm a 49-year-old mother of 3 boys. I'm really active. I love sports. I love to be outside. I love the beach, the mountains. I love spending time with my family and time with my friends. My husband is a teacher at UNCC. And we have known each other since high school. McClain is a freshman at Davidson. He loves to fish, and nobody else in the family likes to fish like he does. He loves to fish for trout. He loves to hike, backpack. My middle son, Elliott, is a 10th grader at Providence Day School. He plays football. He also wrestles and plays lacrosse, and he's the funny one in the family. When we found out that I had cancer, which was really tough to tell your children you have cancer. He said, oh my gosh, you know, after the shock wore off, he said, oh my gosh, is that why people are leaving things at our door? And I said, no, Elliott, it's Christmas time. He's like, well, I have a great idea. Let's put a big sign on the door, have cancer, bring snacks. So, you know, he made us all laugh. And then my youngest son, William, is a 7th grader. He's a 7th grader and he loves to swim. He loves to watch Carolina basketball with me. He's a normal kind of 7th grade boy. First of all, it was a shock to me because I'm rarely sick, you know. I feel like I exercise and eat right and got my mammograms on time. And so when I had to go back for a mammogram, I was just a little irritated. I was like, oh, I don't have time for that. I'm busy. Children, and I'm working, but I go back and then I saw the look on the radiologist's face when she looked at the— I guess it's ultrasound— and I see this kind of star-shaped thing on the screen. And I never realized before how important mammograms were. There was no lump, no doctor could feel anything, I could not feel anything. My cancer was aggressive and I was on time for my mammogram, and thank goodness. I stayed awake at night just worrying about telling my sons. You know, that was— whoo! That was super hard. When I finally got to tell them, I got the 2 older ones together and I told them. And my middle child, his eyes were this big. And my older son just started crying, you know, and he said, oh, Mom, I can't believe you have to go through this. You know, I'm so sorry. So that was really tough. Yeah. And then I told my youngest. And he burst into tears, and then later that night he said, am I going to get cancer? And I said, no, it's just me. Once I told them and had my doctors lined up and my wonderful nurses, everything just was better from there. First you feel like your body's kind of turned against you. You know, this body that's worked so well all these years, and all of a sudden there's a You know, a really serious disease, and it's scary. Chemotherapy is the first line of defense, so I'm halfway through. The nurses at Oncology Specialists are fantastic. The chemotherapy is a little tough. The first one, I thought, oh, this is not too bad. The second one was a little bit worse. There's a little nausea. I was achy at times. My skin's dry. My eyes have been dry. Some stomach issues, but it's nothing that is insurmountable. Then I'm gonna have some type of surgery. I don't know exactly what type yet. They're gonna do an MRI and see, you know, exactly how small the cancer is. We're thinking it's gonna be almost, you know, not noticeable anymore. And then I think radiation as well. But I feel like this is the hardest part, the chemotherapy. Yeah, and if I can just get through 3 more rounds, 6 more weeks, I'll be good to go. Now I've lost some hair, my hair's thinned, but not all of it. So that's enabled me to work, you know, it's been nice. When I walk out on the street, people don't know immediately that I'm sick. I feel so grateful. I feel grateful to, to be one of the lucky ones that is treatable. I feel grateful for my family and my friends more than ever. So you really appreciate just how important your friends and family are in your life. You're grateful for every day. You're grateful for the days you feel like walking or exercising. Exercise is just a lovely thing now because I feel like doing it some days and It's a gift. The advances they've made in breast cancer and the Susan G. Komen Foundation has been instrumental in cancer research and the money they've raised and the information they know about your genes and which genes, you know, wipe away the bad cells and which genes encourage the bad cells. It has— that has been amazing. I lost my mother to pancreatic cancer in 2006. I think we all know somebody that has had cancer, and it's something we can do. We're not powerless anymore. You know, there are things we can donate. We can, you know, the people that are doing the research are amazing. Thank you everybody for coming and everybody that's here tonight. Yeah, it's amazing. The things that, that we all together can do.
