UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio–It’s been about six years since Bernadette Scruggs first heard the news.
“I kind of went numb. A lot of prayer, a lot of crying and then after a while,” she said. “I kind of got more in tune to my feelings because I really just kind of shut down a little bit.”
In February 2006, she went in for a routine mammogram and later found out she had triple-negative breast cancer, then at 51 years old.
“I didn’t expect it,” she said. “I didn’t have a script, like when you have breast cancer, this is how you’re going to handle it. I had no idea.”
The University Heights woman wasn’t just worried about her health, but the future of her two sons, Sterling and Wyatt.
“My sons at the time were 11 and 12, and I’m like, I can’t die yet, I still have to raise my sons,” she said. “I still want to live, and then you start to think about all you wish you had done.”
After surgery, chemo and radiation treatments, Bernadette was even more anxious about her future. She turned to support communities, like The Gathering Place, for help.
“It’s hard. They don’t know what to do,” said Susan Marinac, a program director of The Gathering Place. “They’ve got all these appointments, all this chemotherapy, and they just do it, and then when they’re done… How did i do that, how did i get through that? And then they fall apart and that’s very common.”
Marinac says workshop, retreats and support groups are often the key to moving forward–something Bernadette is ready to do.
“The support groups are fantastic,” she said. “I could just be in a room with these women. I didn’t have to say the word. They all knew what I was feeling.
Bernadette said fellow survivors have developed a one-of-a-kind sisterhood.
“I didn’t expect it,” she said. “I have 10 new friends, 10 new good friends who know what I’m feeling and we support each other and we call ourselves the bosom buddies and we are bosom buddies.”
However, just are Bernadette was starting to move on, this past year, her cancer came back. It’s even more agressive than before.
“I’ve learned fantastic life lessons that I know I would not have got without a cancer diagnosis,” she said. “This may sound a little strange, but I’m very grateful.”
And this time around, Bernadette is ready to take on the challenge for her family–and most of all–for herself.
“I know I’m alright even though I may not be alright, and that’s what I got from the first diagnosis,” she said. “I got through that, I could pretty much get through anything. I’m not like, ‘Bring it,’ but if it happens I’m OK. I’m really OK.”