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AUGUSTA — Nancy Shuman sparkles – and not just from the bling on her signature glasses. Nevertheless, it’s not easy every day, especially during two years dotted with health scares that would put anyone back on their heels.
This fall, she laced up her sneakers for the Oct. 14 MaineGeneral Health Walk for Hope marshal, where she launched a crowd of 1,000 walking in support of local cancer care.
In 2015 after a routine mammogram, Shuman was called back for a closer look. That closer look turned into a PET scan, revealing one glowing node on her left side; that prompted a biopsy.
“We weren’t too concerned at first,” said Shuman’s husband, Charlie, president of Charlie’s Motors in Augusta. “They assured us it was probably nothing to worry about but they wanted to be sure. It was when lab results weren’t due back for 24 hours and we got a call after 12 that we knew something was wrong.”
“I didn’t shed a tear,” Nancy said.
“I shed the tears,” Charlie chimed in.
Diagnosed at MaineGeneral’s Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care, Nancy’s oncologist, Richard Polkinghorn, encouraged a second opinion before surgery and referred the Shumans to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
“It felt good to be supported in seeking a second opinion,” he said. “The partnership between MaineGeneral and Dana-Farber made it so easy.”
Twelve nodes were removed during surgery in Boston. Everyone was shocked when 11 of them were positive, registering Nancy’s cancer as stage 3 aggressive breast cancer. While it didn’t require a mastectomy, it did require a year of treatments and recovery — surgery followed by chemotherapy and then radiation — and the lasting effects of the combination.
For every curve thrown, Nancy doubled down on optimism and kindness. She wore sparkly hats when her hair fell out; she packed chemo appointments with company; she baked goodies for HACCC staff every time she went in. She also comforted her grown children as they anticipated the worst but hoped for the best.
She came through it. Her cancer is considered cured. When asked what it meant to have access to treatment here at home, she paused and answered with a question of her own.
“Why would I go somewhere else? Why, when we have such marvelous, top-notch cancer care here?””If we thought we could have gotten better care somewhere else, we would have gone,” her husband added. “At the cancer center, not only are they clinically incredible, but people care; you can see it in their faces.”
It mattered to the Shumans and to their family and friends that her healing could happen close to home. Chemo, radiation, physical therapy — those things helped, but so did the company, the laughter and being home after every treatment day to step around the family dogs, cuddle grandchildren and sleep in her own bed.
These days, Shuman is busy writing new chapters, one of which involved a big pair of golden scissors as she clipped through a lavender ribbon at the Walk for Hope.
She cut the ribbon and gave way to a sea of stories like her own. Together these walkers flooded the downtown of Maine’s capital city to honor, remember and hope on behalf of every family touched by cancer.
