*WANTED - 32 YEAR OLD WOMAN INTERESTED IN HAVING BREAST CANCER*

Over the years when we read a classified ad we are searching for something. A car to take us to new destinations or maybe a job where we can get more experience. On the morning of January 18 2002 I answered that ad that would give me new direction and more experience it read YOUNG WOMAN INTERESTED IN HAVING BREAST CANCER. I did not apply for this position but it picked me.

My name is Elizabeth Dill. I am 34 years old and a two year breast cancer survivor.

On January 18, 2002 as I took a leisurely bath I found a lump the size of a golf ball under my right breast. No one in my family has had cancer, let alone breast cancer, so I thought maybe it was just a cyst. To be safe I called my doctor and got an appointment that day and so began the roller coaster ride. First came the mammogram, then a breast biopsy and as each test went by the tumor was growing in my breast. It had now gone from the size of a golf ball to the size of a baseball. Then on February 18 I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Each time I went to my surgeon I brought a friend but on that day I went alone. My doctor walked in the room and said *Oh you came alone today* and that was all she had to say. As she spoke I felt like I was having an out of body experience. I could hear this person talking to me saying things like cancer, surgery, mastectomy and chemotherapy, I felt like I would faint. I left the office called my sisters and asked them to drive to my Mothers to tell her as I feared what the news might do to her and I did not want her to be alone. They scheduled me for a mastectomy the following week.

After my surgery I was sent home with one breast, drains coming out of me where my breast once sat and a prescription to prevent infection. What about a prescription for sanity!!!! I lay for about a month in the fetal position asking the unanswerable question WHY ME!!! I was convinced I was going to die. I could not sleep and would call my mother, a friend or pretty much anyone I could find at 3:00 in the morning in tears.

I was scheduled to meet with my oncologist Dr Zibdawi at Southlake Regional Health Center in Newmarket in March to determine my pathology and schedule chemotherapy. When I went to my appointment I was informed I had Stage 3 advanced breast cancer, estrogen positive and the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes. Dr. Zibdawi and Naz the head of clinical trials who has now become like a second Mother to me suggested I participate in a clinical trial of chemotherapy that would mean 6 cycles of chemo. The hardest day was still yet to come. That was the day they scheduled me for x-rays, a bone scan and a liver ultrasound to determine if the cancer had spread anywhere else in my body. I could not stop crying the whole day thinking the worst of course. My Doctors once again came to my rescue and called me before days end to let me know it had not spread into my body.

I was very lucky to have the excellent care of Dr. Zibdawi, Naz and the nurses in the cancer clinic at Southlake.. Each time I came for chemo they greeted me with smiling faces and hugs when tears could not be suppressed. They answered every question with heart felt sincerity and true interest in me not only as a patient but as a person. One day Naz came in the waiting room and found me crying. She took me across the hall and asked if she could help. I told her I was shopping the day before with my mother and saw another mother and her daughter out together giggling and laughing. I told her I could not understand why this was happening to me, why am I out shopping with my mother weak with one breast and a wig . Each time I saw a girl my age enjoying life I got angry. Naz asked me how I knew they had not had cancer. She said in a few years my hair will grow back, my strength will return and I would look just like them again. I realized she was right. When we look at someone we really do not know what they have been through or are going through. I make it a point to try and be nice to everyone now, you never know that person you are opening the door for may be going through chemo and using their little bit of energy just to get out that day for air.

I was lucky enough to have an excellent support network. Each chemo I had my own Team. My family all came and took turns being with me as I sat for the four to five hours while being fed medication through intravenous. Not only did they help me though they tried to help everyone. As my sisters and mothers would sit with me they would talk to these complete strangers who now suddenly shared this bond with us. We were members of a new club....The Cancer Club.

I am happy to say I finished my chemotherapy on July 29, 2002. The cancer is now in remission, gone but never forgotten. Since then I have had another prophylactic mastectomy to reduce my risk of it returning in my other breast, a hysterectomy and oopherectomy to shut down the production of estrogen and breast reconstruction.

I have found a new strength due to my cancer and am very open with people about my past. I am proud to be a breast cancer survivor and if telling my story can prompt another woman to be more diligent about self breast examination, I may be lucky enough to be helping save a life.

One of the worst things of having cancer was thinking of all the things you have put off over the years. I had always wanted to travel but kept putting it off. This year I have been to Mexico, Las Vegas, Cuba, and gone on a cruise. Live your life for today because you never know if there will be a tomorrow.

In addition to my hectic travel schedule, I have started a company named PINC which stands for the Personal Information Network on Cancer. I am developing a program to assist other woman with Breast Cancer and starting a 24 hour help line so there is always someone to talk to on those nights when you feel so scared and alone. I went in the CIBC Run For the Cure the last two years in a row and actually raised the most money for an individual in the Barrie Run and won free airplane tickets. I have also given many speeches at charity events and most recently have been asked to take a seat on the Executive Board for the Mississauga CIBC Run for a Cure Committee.

In March of 2002 I remember laying in bed sick from chemotherapy and looking out the window and it was snowing. I took in every moment of that snow fall, thinking maybe it would be the last I ever saw. The first time it snowed that December I cried, I had made it and seen the snow again and so much more. I see everything brighter and with new perspective. Cancer took a breast but gave me a life.

Now, two years later, I have been diagnosed with a recurrence of breast cancer and must start treatments again. This time I am not as scared, I know the days of uncertainty and depression will rear its ugly head again, but I also know I this time I have no regrets. I have lived my life to the fullest and will continue to do so everday, that is a SURVIVOR.

So if one day you are the one that answers that ad for cancer patient wanted, take it as a new challenge and add CANCER SURVIVOR to your resume.