News from Project Self-Sufficiency

“I want to express that the individual has to be proactive in their own self-examinations,” explains breast cancer survivor Bette Schumacher, who noticed a strange dimpling in one of her breasts at the age of 74.   With a family history of breast cancer, Schumacher had been receiving regular screening mammograms for years.   Although a questionable mass had been detected in the opposite breast many years before, there had been no malignancy and the spot remained unchanged over time.   This time, Schumacher insisted on getting a mammogram immediately, but the test yielded nothing out of the ordinary.   She persisted in her belief that something was amiss and made an appointment with a breast surgeon who ordered a second mammogram and an ultrasound.   Eventually, a biopsy determined that Schumacher had Stage 3 breast cancer.   Schumacher was vindicated.   “I’m not a doctor, but I can feel my own body!” Breast cancer survivor Bette Schumacher ...

For 20 years, Edna Murray worked as a stockbroker on Wall Street.   The high stress job eventually took its toll on her health.   Edna was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of 35.   She recovered but soon lost her zest for her demanding career.   When she was laid off as part of a corporate merger, Murray took a long, hard look at her options.   “I wanted to go into a career where I could help women,” recalls Murray.   Coincidentally, she went for a screening mammogram and was intrigued.   “I thought, ‘I could see myself doing this!’”   She returned to school and became a licensed mammography technician. Murray had no family history of breast cancer, but given her medical history, Murray was encouraged to receive annual mammograms.   When she was 46, Murray’s mammogram alarmed the technician; Murray demanded to see the film and knew immediately that something was amiss.   “The calcifications were grouped kind of fu...

Before she reached the age of 40, Mary Ullmann had been widowed and survived two separate bouts of breast cancer as well as a separate battle with lung cancer.   At the age of 37, she received a diagnosis of Stage Three breast cancer only after visiting numerous physicians in search of a reason for the extreme discomfort she felt while nursing her youngest daughter.   Eventually, Ullmann endured a mastectomy and had half of one of her lungs removed, along with the accompanying odyssey of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.   Her extended family including her sister, parents, spouse, in-laws and other relatives helped to care for her three young daughters as Ullmann faced one round of surgery and chemotherapy after another.   The mother of three is now a 59-year-old grandmother facing a divorce from her second husband.   “I am starting a whole new chapter of my life now,” remarks Ullmann.   “I am really curious about what this next chapter of my life...