Photo courtesy of Marcy Harris Photos
Millennial Might
Women under 30 do battle with breast cancer
It can be tempting to regard cancer as something that’s only a risk for the older set, but plenty of young people have had close encounters with the disease.
Catriona Hay and Brittany Beitel, each of whom was diagnosed with breast cancer before her 30th birthday, are proof that it can happen to anyone.
Hay says her age made her feel very out-of-place when she was undergoing treatments.
“One thing that I noticed when I was going through my treatment is that everyone I saw was so old,” she says. “Being 28 and fighting cancer and seeing all these frail elderly people was really frightening.”
For Beitel, her age simply made the cancer even more unexpected than it would otherwise have been.
“I’m living proof that cancer does not discriminate,” says Beitel. “I am 26 years old with no family history.”
Photo courtesy of Brittany Beitel
Millennial Might
In 2014, Hay and Beitel were diagnosed within two days of each other: Hay on May 14 and Beitel on May 16. Both Hay and Beitel have undergone chemotherapy, radiation treatments and mastectomies, and are now happily in remission.
Hay and Beitel are now settling back into their normal lives, Hay as operations supervisor for L Brands and Beitel as a trauma nurse at Grant Medical Center, but both women feel as if their experiences with cancer have taught them a great deal.
“For me, it was really an opportunity to kind of slow down my life and really re-focus on what was important to me,” says Hay. “I’ve always been very career-focused, and I’ve always been trying to make what I felt was the best life for me and my son, and I think what I took away from this is that you can’t get back that time with your family. I’m no longer willing to work crazy hours and give up the time with my family just to get to the next level.”
Beitel has similar feelings.
“This experience has opened my eyes so much,” she says. “I have learned to not take life for granted, and I seriously cherish every day I have now. You learn that the little things you used to stress out about are nothing anymore. As much as I hate cancer, I am thankful for it in many ways. I learned what life is really about from this experience, and not many people learn that at such a young age.”
Both Hay and Beitel now work to help others who are fighting cancer. Hay works with the Young Survival Coalition, an organization that works specifically with women under 40 who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, and Beitel runs a Facebook page called BeitelStrong, where she offers advice to those who may be in the same situation she was.
Athnie McMillan-Comeaux is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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