Written from the perspective of volleyball junior Andie Hanus
The C word.
Cancer. In my family’s case, it was breast cancer for both my mom and grandmother.
I was young when they were diagnosed the first time. My grandmother required chemotherapy and radiation treatments and had lymph nodes removed.
Growing up, I knew the stakes.
Senior year of high school my mom had a relapse. Thankfully, they caught it really early that time. Since she’d had it before, she’d been getting regular tests and checkups. And when it came down to reducing her risk of a third bout of cancer, she decided to have a double mastectomy, which was the toughest part of watching her battle it again.
My parents were really open with me in telling me what was going on, but we kept it on the downlow until she decided to have the procedure. When we did tell people, my volleyball coach and athletic director both reached out. I had a lot of support in my high school and from my club volleyball team.
But just knowing that that many people cared, that many people wanted to reach out, and they knew that breast cancer was a big deal, was helpful. Definitely helpful.
Having my mom fight breast cancer for the second time when I was old enough to understand was eye opening. Not only because wow, my mom has breast cancer, but also because I’m a woman. My sister’s a woman and our risk is much higher because both our mom and grandmother have had it.
That was a big thing that took a toll on my mom, she was always worried about us and what it meant for us. What it meant for our futures, having to get tested all the time, our chances being higher. So it’s one of those things that I’ve been aware of from a young age, I’ve always known about breast cancer. I’m well aware I’m going to have to get mammograms quite often. My mom did end up getting tested for the BRCA gene (BRCA1 & 2 are genes that everyone has, but some people inherit mutations in the genes linked to increased risk of breast cancer). We took a lot of steps to figure out what it meant for my sister and I.
That was the biggest thing about being older when my mom had it for the second time, was realizing that I’m at risk too.
I transferred from University of Missouri my sophomore year, right around the time that UDance was happening in the spring, so it kind of just hit me. But this year I want to be involved, I know my team is.
Missouri didn’t have anything like UDance, which is such a cool activity that we do here. I’m on SAAC (Student Athlete Advisory Committee) and we have Reps for Kids, which is a student-athlete fundraiser for the Andrew McDonough Be Positive Foundation to raise money to fight childhood cancer.
I want to help anyway I can with SAAC and Reps for Kids and my teammates who are on the UDance team.
My mother and my grandmother are two very important people in my life, not just because they’re my mom and grandma, but also because of the way they faced that challenge. They’re both pretty faithful people. The way that they used their faith to fight that cancer, and that it gave them the fortitude to do so, has definitely been inspiring to me.
Seeing my mom up close and personal go through that fight and not lose her spirit or her spunk, not lose her sense of humor are definitely reasons that I admire her.