Kent residents passing by the Downtown Seattle Macy\u2019s this month might see a couple of familiar faces in the store windows.<\/p>\n
Jill O\u2019Toole and Anne Hirner, both of Kent, are among the 16 breast cancer survivors Macy\u2019s picked as models for its 12th annual Breast Cancer Survivor Fashion Show. Life-sized photos of the women \u2013 attired in Macy\u2019s couture with all the trimmings \u2013 are in the store\u2019s window display at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Stewart Street.<\/p>\n
And Oct. 18, the two appeared at the store in person, along with 14 other survivors from western Washington, to model fashions and share their cancer survivorship stories during the sold-out fashion show.<\/p>\n
And they have quite the stories to tell.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Jill O\u2019Toole<\/p>\n
Meet Jill. She\u2019s 46, works as a real estate associate, and enjoys golfing with her husband, Dolan O\u2019Toole. She\u2019s also a four-year breast cancer survivor.<\/p>\n
She was first diagnosed with cancer in 2004. It was the Monday after Thanksgiving. \u201cI\u2019ll never forget that day,\u201d she said, at an interview Oct. 13. \u201cOne minute you\u2019re trying to decide what you\u2019re going to order on your pizza, and the next you\u2019re being told you have aggressive cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The diagnosis came as a complete shock, because a biopsy on a small lump in her breast had come back negative a month earlier. Jill had elected to have the lump removed anyway, just in case. And now, it turned out, the lump did indeed contain cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m living proof that if the needle doesn\u2019t go to the right location … you might not have a correct diagnosis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She went through months of chemotherapy. Because her cancer was \u201cestrogen-positive\u201d (meaning it fed on estrogen), she also had her ovaries removed, sending her into premature menopause. Then came radiation, and a variety of hormone-suppressing drugs, which she continues to take to this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stopped wearing wigs on my 20th wedding anniversary in August (of 2005),\u201d Jill said.<\/p>\n
This past year, Jill\u2019s cancer showed up again in two enlarged lymph nodes \u2014 one under her armpit, and one in the chest. She went through another series of radiation treatments, which ended July 21. Now life is back to … nearly normal. \u201cYou can never be the person you were before (cancer). You just have to find your new normal,\u201d said Jill.<\/p>\n
Cancer has taught Jill a number of lessons. \u201cYou learn so much about yourself … that you\u2019re stronger than you thought you were, and that you have a lot more to give.\u201d<\/p>\n
It also allowed her to see the strength of her husband\u2019s character, as he has stood by her through some very difficult years. \u201cHe\u2019s a much better person than I ever thought he was when I married him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
One of the most powerful lessons came from Jill\u2019s two nieces, who were 5 and 7 when they first saw her without a wig in 2005. Her hair had begun to grow back, but it was still, she said, \u201cextremely short.\u201d Her nieces asked why she had cut it, and she explained about the cancer treatments. Then one of the girls said, \u201cThat\u2019s okay, Aunt Jill. It doesn\u2019t matter what your hair looks like. You\u2019re still Aunt Jill.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Anne Hirner<\/p>\n
Anne Hirner, 58, has traveled a rough road in the 16 years since she was diagnosed with breast cancer.<\/p>\n
She found the lump herself, at age 42, after her yearly mammogram failed to pick anything up. She had a mastectomy, followed by six months of chemotherapy, and five years of the hormone-suppressing drug tamoxifen.<\/p>\n
Since then, she\u2019s remained cancer-free. \u201cI go faithfully to my oncologist once a year, and I do my annual mammograms,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When first diagnosed with cancer, Anne started attending the Special Women Breast Cancer Support Group, which meets twice a month in the Breast Center at Valley Medical Center. The group proved to be a huge encouragement for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was first diagnosed, it was so good to walk in there and see the survivors from 10 years and 20 years,\u201d Anne said, adding that \u201cYou learn more from people who have gone through (breast cancer) than you can from the medical professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, Anne started helping to facilitate the support group meetings, something she continued to do until two years ago when Cancer Lifeline took over running the group. Anne still attends the meetings, and recommends them to anyone going through breast cancer.<\/p>\n
But Anne had more to suffer through than just breast cancer. Four years ago, her husband, Chris, died of a heart attack. His death came just two years after the couple\u2019s son, Jeff, had died of a brain aneurism at age 27.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was hard,\u201d she said of the triple blow of cancer and deaths. Then she shrugged, and smiled. \u201cYou just have to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is exactly what Anne is doing. She recently started dating, which forced her to face the question: \u201cCan another man accept me with only one breast?\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes. Her boyfriend, Bob, \u201cis a great, caring guy,\u201d she said, and accepted her just as she is.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s fun,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Also this year, Anne got her first tattoo, just above the mastectomy scar, so she\u2019d have something colorful to look at instead of the scar.<\/p>\n
The tattoo is of a Native American woman\u2019s head, with hair flowing behind her and a multicolored headdress in the shape of a butterfly wing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think of it as kind of a warrior woman bursting into a butterfly,\u201d Anne said of the tattoo. She\u2019s showed it off to all her coworkers at Worldwide Distributors in Kent, as well as to the mammogram team at Valley Medical Center. The tattoo, she said, is a symbol of her own growth, and the purple (cancer survivors\u2019 color) interwoven in the other colors reminds her that cancer isn\u2019t the end of the road.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 As one woman to another<\/p>\n
When asked what advice they\u2019d give to other women, both Jill and Anne stressed the importance of doing breast self-exams to catch the cancer early.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly diagnosis is key,\u201d said Jill. She noted that the lump she found herself in October of 2004 hadn\u2019t shown up on a mammogram in January.<\/p>\n
Anne, too, mentioned the fact that she\u2019d found her own lump, and urged other women to \u201cbe aware of your body… Do self-exams and mammograms.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other point both Anne and Jill stressed was you can still get breast cancer even if you have no family history of the disease. Both of them were the first in their families to have breast cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easy to live oblivious, thinking that you\u2019re exempt, and nobody\u2019s exempt,\u201d said Jill.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Find help<\/p>\n
Special Women Breast Cancer Support Group<\/p>\n
When: 7-8:30 p.m. the first and third Thursdays of the month.<\/p>\n
Where: Valley Medical Center\u2019s Breast Center Conference Room, 400 S. 43rd St., Renton.<\/p>\n
Info: 206-832-1297.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kent residents passing by the Downtown Seattle Macy\u2019s this month might see a couple of familiar faces in the store windows.
\nJill O\u2019Toole and Anne Hirner, both of Kent, are among the 16 breast cancer survivors Macy\u2019s picked as models for its 12th annual Breast Cancer Survivor Fashion Show. Life-sized photos of the women \u2013 attired in Macy\u2019s couture with all the trimmings \u2013 are in the store\u2019s window display at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Stewart Street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":23183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23182"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}