2021 PAINT THE PAPER PINK

Page 54 2021 PAINT THE PAPER PINK LINCOLN DAILY NEWS Oct./Nov. 2021 Nancy Cunningham hen Nancy Cunningham was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009, she can’t say that she was surprised. Cancer ran in her family. As the youngest of nine children, she had witnessed cancer of some form in five of her siblings. She had lost one brother to the disease when he was only 48 years old. What was surprising was the fact that she had zero indication that she had cancer when she went for her mammogram. She had been having mammograms since she was in her early 30s because of her family history. She expected to someday find something in her self-exams, but she didn’t. Instead her cancer was found through medical imaging, a tumor, deep under the soft breast tissue, attached to the bone. The diagnosis was a Phodes tumor. This is a more rare type of breast cancer, and she learned that the only treatment was surgery. Hailing from Minnesota, Nancy and her husband Mike came to the community for jobs. For a time, Nancy said she and Mike were both working in Bloomington. They lived in that area. Then she got a job in shares her journey emphasizing: “Cancer is not a death sentence” W Continued n