people&places ✴ cancer strikes but doesn’t win
THE
LI VE LIFE By Paige Glazer
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Photos by Cobblestone Photography
Everyone has cancer cells in their bodies. These cells do not typically show up until they multiply by several billion. If the immune system is strong enough, it will keep those cells from manifesting into tumors. But for some, the possibility of cancer will become a reality.
For Audrey Allen, breast cancer came as a surprise. Like most ladies over 40, Audrey went for her annual mammogram year after year. After some time, her one good mammogram per year would turn into a call for a second look, only to find that everything was indeed okay. This process continued for over four years before that second look turned into a third and fourth, finally resulting in the dreaded news. “A week after my biopsy, I was driving home from work on a Friday evening when my doctor called to share with me that the test came back positive and that I did have breast cancer,” she recalls. They told Audrey she had Invasive Ductal Carcinoma – Estrogen Progesterone Positive – HER2 Negative Cancer. She pulled over into a gas station to collect her wits before continuing her drive home to Richmond Hill. She remembers thinking, “I’ve always eaten right, I exercise, I played a lot of tennis, I’m too young to die, is all I 5 0 R IC H M O N D H I L L R E F L E C T IO N S