Cancer survivors tell their stories at UK’s “Expressions of Courage”

LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW) – It was a day to celebrate, the UK Markey Cancer Center held “Expressions of Courage”, its annual National Cancer Survivor’s Day event.

Two survivors spoke about their battles, after first learning they had cancer.

“You’re just kind of floored that this is a reality,” said survivor Sarah Lister. “It takes awhile to accept that this is happening to you.

She was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in 2016.

“I had not a lot of warning,” said Sarah. “I started feeling like I had the flu, and then it wasn’t the flu, and then I was hospitalized within 24 hours of my diagnosis.”

Sarah spent 127 days at UK, before finally getting a bone marrow transplant.

Then in 2018, she was able to meet her donor.

“He came out from behind the curtain and it still makes me really emotional because what a gift, you know.”

Sarah and her donor are still friends to this day.

Survivor Emily McDowell was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, but the hardest part was yet to come.

“I was diagnosed with stage III Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and the hardest part for me about being sick was not any of the things I expected,” said Emily. “It was not fear of dying, it was not losing my hair or being sick from chemo, it was how lonely it was.”

She says people disappeared, because they didn’t know what to say or what to do.

And at 24, she couldn’t understand why that was happening.

“I drew the conclusion that it was about me and that was really painful,” said Emily. “So when my treatment was over I wanted to just put it behind me and not identify as a survivor, get back to normal as fast as I could.”

Now looking back Emily says, “That feeling of loneliness is so normal and it’s so common. This isn’t about you, folks are scared and they’re afraid that they’re inadequate, they’re afraid that they’re going to do it wrong.”

Emily says the best way to help is to just be there for those battling cancer.