Community Corner

No Funeral for Mom Who's Beating Breast Cancer

Recovering from treatment after doctors found a large, cancerous tumor, a San Juan Capistrano woman organizes a team for Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

She had had yearly mammograms, so when Angela Robinson found out that a cancerous tumor the size of an orange was growing in her breast, she said it felt as if the wind was knocked out of her.

"I think that’s probably a common fear for people, the fear of getting cancer, but you never think it’s going to be you," she said.

The diagnosis came Sept. 17, shortly after she felt the lump while adjusting her bra. She and her husband remember vividly that upon getting the bad news via phone call at about 3:30 p.m., she walked to the front yard of their San Juan Capistrano home, where he was playing with their two young children, and collapsed against the home's entryway in tears.

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In Stage 3, although she didn't know it at the time, she had a 20 percent chance of survival. Her husband, Dave, kept that from her and quietly planned her funeral. "My dog was going to outlive my wife," he remembers thinking.

In the 10 months of treatment, friends, family and neighbors delivered home-cooked meals to their doorstep, baby-sat their kids and picked up cartons of milk from the grocery store.

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"I had a really, really good support system," she said. "Now that I’m further along in the process, I've met people who live alone, who go through this alone—I can't imagine."

The treatment was rapid-fire. The last of the radiation therapy wrapped up just over a month ago, and although her memory still lapses briefly in conversations and tears are part of her day, she's dived into organizing a team for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk Orange County on Sept. 25 in Newport Beach.

Named the Chemo Room Groupies, the team will consist of friends and family, and patients at her Mission Viejo-based oncologist's office and fellow survivors.

"This was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through in my entire life," she said. "There’s some purpose … whether it’s to help other women, I think that’s what it is to help other people to make them feel like they’re not alone, even in this small way, in organizing the team."

It's the Treatment That Hurts

For Robinson, treatment happened quickly. Doctors told her that the tumor may have gone undetected for as many as 10 years, so there was no time to be choosy about doctors or appointment times. 

In a three-day period, she got a biopsy, learned her diagnosis, went for an MRI and visited a breast reconstructionist.

There was no time for Google searches of "breast cancer." No time for informative book-reading. No time to call her aunt or a friend of a friend—both breast cancer survivors whose experiences were not familiar to her.

"I had assumed that because I had just had a mammogram, it had to be small. 'It’s probably so small, and at least if they catch it, they caught it early,' " she remembers thinking. "Then it was completely the opposite."

The stay-at-home mom explained to Josh, 3, and Emily, 2, that she would be sleepy and visiting the doctor a lot.

"Between the chemotherapy, the Benadryl, several anti-nausea medications, it takes everything out of you: the energy level, the concentration, the focus."

When she finished chemo treatments Feb. 22, she had double breast surgery one month later, then breast reconstruction with a plastic surgeon, followed by radiation.

She lost locks, her eyebrows and her eyelashes.

A Support System Leads to a Support Group

When Josh was 4 months old, Robinson joined the MOMS club of Dana Point/San Juan Capistrano.

When those women and other girlfriends found out about the cancer, they dropped off magazines, cards and flowers. When they went to get their nails done, they called her, too, even though they knew she might cancel at the last minute.

"I had to get in line behind Leslie, because I knew she had every Tuesday booked" as Angela's companion for chemotherapy, Dave said. "I know it sounds cheesy, but it really renewed my faith in humanity."

Still, there were times when she felt as if she were left alone to face the disease. She tried a support group, but the mood was dreary, and there was a lot of sadness.

So toward the end of radiation, she organized her own group, "A Cup of Tea and a Smile." The women traipse through the and share laughs at a happy hour at the Chart House Restaurant. "We're all about enjoying life now. We all have the same kind of mentality; they understand."

There are also the moments when a stranger notices her pixie haircut—and perhaps the freshly inked tattoo on her wrist that reads "Cherish Life"—and stops to give her a hug.

On one August day, a six-year survivor approached her in . In a yellow sundress, the woman reminded her to continue being brave.

'Cherish Life'

Now in the healing phase, Robinson has returned to practicing yoga. Besides getting the tattoo, she's also pierced her nose.

She's embraced a new role in starting to help other women who might feel just as alone as she did at times.

"That was probably the hardest part, not having someone to talk to who completely understood what I was going through," she said.

Joining the breast cancer walk will be one way for her and others help find a cure before any of their daughters grow old enough to experience it themselves, she said.

More than 30,000 people are expected to turn out for the Orange County event. It is estimated that 1,900 women in Orange County are facing a diagnosis of breast cancer this year—that number does not include those already battling the disease.

"I think everyone at some point will be affected by it," said Robinson. The race "is how you can make a difference in trying to find a cure for this horrible disease."

To help the Chemo Room Groupies meet their fundraising goal, visit their team's page on the Komen website.


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