The Daily News

Pam Knapper said she's embraced her life as a breast cancer survivor.

As October is breast cancer awareness month, the 43-year-old Breckenridge resident said it's a good opportunity to reach other women.

"Breast cancer is a very beatable disease," she said. "You just have to be on top of it and catch it early."

Advertisement

Knapper, who was diagnosed in 2006, has been considered free of the disease for the past two years. Her focus now centers on survivor groups such as Relay for Life and Embrace, the latest program at MeritCare in Fargo.

"I've become really involved," she said. "I've been helping them kind of structure how to offer programs to women after they've been diagnosed and completed it."

For Knapper, life after cancer has been rewarding. A breast cancer support group she started in Fargo a year ago has blossomed, growing to 15 women who appeared at a meeting last week. Eager to share her experience, Knapper and another survivor have been offering suggestions and help to a cancer patient who just started treatment.

"I always said if I could take what I went through and help just one woman...then whatever I went through is well worth it," she said.

But the road hasn't been easy. After her initial diagnosis, Knapper underwent a double mastectomy and the removal of 15 lymph nodes. Post-chemotherapy treatment caused problems with her uterus, resulting in Knapper's hysterectomy surgery on Nov. 19. She was using Tamoxifen, a hormone-blocking drug she was intended to be on for five years.

"There is some link with breast cancer and ovarian cancer, so my doctors have suggested that I have it done," she said. "Why wouldn't I? It's kind of preventative, too. With the luck I've had, I'll just do anything I can on a precautionary level."

Weight gain has also haunted her after treatment, but she thinks she's too hard on herself.

"You know what, I'm alive," she said. "If I'm carrying around an extra 40 pounds, I'm lucky to be here."

Knapper completed her third and final stage of reconstructive surgery in July. The process has eased her back into a kind of "normalcy" that allows her to slip into a swimsuit. Before, she had to insert a prosthesis.

"You try swimming in that," she joked. "For me, just going to Target and buying a swimsuit and wearing it was huge."

Although some women feel that breasts don't make the person, Knapper felt the reconstruction was important for herself. If she was told she couldn't have the surgery, she would have been fine with it, she said.

"The thing is, I can walk into a room now and no one knows I was sick, and that's important to me," she said. "I want people to treat me as just normal."

Comments