e-mail
	comment

REAL SURVIVOR: Snowmobiler Stacey Wright is a breast cancer survivor who is donating her time and energy to find a cure. —submitted photos

Diagnosed at a very young age with no family history of the disease, breast cancer survivor Stacey Wright has very personal and powerful motivations for her involvement with the Way Out Women (WOW) Relay for breast cancer research.

“This is just incredibly powerful and it’s amazing to be a part of it,”said Wright, who lives in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. Wright was first diagnosed with breast cancer just one month after her 30th birthday.

A year later, with a mastectomy and chemotherapy already behind her, Wright was asked to be the VIP to ride from Prince Albert to Meadow Lake and to speak about her experience with breast cancer at a dinner banquet.

“I remember very vividly the first year riding in the ditch and seeing the Polaris truck and trailer driving on the road beside us with all the different sponsors’logos on the side,” Wright recalled. “It was very powerful and emotional to be part of it—I definitely got misty-eyed.”

One more reason to ride
After riding again as a VIP in last year’s relay, Wright was rediagnosed this past spring—the cancer had spread to lymph nodes under her arm.

Now 34 years old, Wright had the tumor removed in early June, recently finished radiation therapy and has had a total of six surgeries to her right side.

“Of course it had to be on my throttle side!” she said.

The glass is still half full
Not one to sit around and feel sorry for herself,Wright is once again planning to take part in the WOW Relay. She is one of the three official team members who have been chosen to ride 1,100 kilometres across the province of Saskatchewan.

“I’ve been so lucky because I seem to have made it through when so many others have not,” she explained optimistically. “And in a way it was good timing because I did not want to miss the relay!”

Wright’s ongoing post-surgery treatments will require her to make bookings for massage therapy at various stops during the WOW Relay, and she will use a compression sleeve and wear tensor bandages to control the lymph edema (swelling of the soft tissues) in her right arm and hand.

Speaking clearly and eloquently about her experiences with breast cancer, Wright said a large part of her motivation is to create awareness— especially in young people—by telling her story.

“When I first found my lump I thought it was a sports injury,” she said.

“I thought (breast cancer) was something my mom should be worried about, but not me. Now I know women as young as 25 who have been diagnosed.”