THUNDER BAY -- As a three time breast cancer survivor Becky Olson knows it’s the humour, happiness and hope that count.
The Breast Friends co-founder was diagnosed 20 years ago with stage three breast cancer, and was given a 60 per cent chance to survive past five years.
After surviving, Olson was diagnosed eight years later on the other side, and five years later she was diagnosed once again, but this time it was more serious as the cancer had been deemed metastatic, meaning it had spread beyond the breast.
“That’s always a scary thing,” Olson said during the 24th annual Luncheon of Hope.
“When you put metastatic and cancer in the same sentence, but since then I’ve been scanned many times and there seems to be no evidence of disease at this point.”
Olson said cancer diagnosis is scary, so if she can pass on a little bit of hope, and a little bit of laughter along with some tools she used to help her through the journey then she has done her job.
“I think we all need hope, and we all need to be reminded that it’s not necessarily the end of things just because you’ve had a cancer diagnosis,” Olson said.
During the luncheon she shared her three steps which helped her cope with the diagnosis – humour, happiness and hope.
“Cancer isn’t funny, but there are those funny moments that all of us need to get through,” Olson said.
“I think sometimes people forget that it’s ok to have fun, and we don’t stop being who we are just because we have a cancer diagnosis.”
She added that she wants to remind people that it’s ok to laugh at the things that are funny, and it’s ok to be happy.
Olson doesn’t believe in statistics of survival, she planned an exercise for the participants to demonstrate how untrue statistics can be.
“Life throws us curve balls, and life gets tough sometimes, but it’s not that thing that defines us it’s what we do with that thing,” she said.
“What I’m hoping is that everyone leaves here today knowing that there is hope and they can laugh, and that it’s ok to be happy.”
