Here's an article about Breanne Sterner and her mother that was in the Buffalo News. It's an interesting read. God Bless Breanne in her struggle. Let's hope that she remains cancer free!

Cheerleader put to the test

Youngstown woman pushes past cancer to land spot on the Buffalo Rush

By MIGUEL RODRIGUEZ
NIAGARA CORRESPONDENT
8/14/2005  
 
 YOUNGSTOWN - For the first six months of this year, Breanne Sterner had little to cheer about.

After finding a good job in the Florida Keys and starting a new life at age 21, a cancer diagnosis changed everything.

She moved back home to Niagara County and in with her parents, Cheryl and Ken Sterner. She underwent six months of chemotherapy. And, with the help of family and friends, she found the strength to reconnect with a sport she loved.

As she fought Hodgkin's lymphoma, Sterner also fought for a spot on the Buffalo Rush, the cheerleading team that will support the Buffalo Rapids American Basketball Association team starting this fall.

So far, so good. At this point, it appears that she has come out on top on both counts.

"In the beginning, I decided I wasn't going to feel sorry for myself, and I didn't want other people to feel sorry for me as well," Sterner said. "I decided I was going to look at it as a positive thing. I'm not saying it's easy. . . . There were days you didn't feel like getting up or getting dressed or getting ready, but I did it every day.

"I put my makeup on, put my wig on and got dressed, just so I could say that I went at it with a positive attitude. . . . I (thought) if you look good, it (would make) you feel better and more confident."

Sterner must remain cancer-free for five years in order to earn the official status of cancer survivor. Her most recent PET and CT scans about three weeks ago showed no signs of the disease.

"I'm positive she'll be fine," said Cheryl Sterner. "I can't think any other way."

Meanwhile, Breanne Sterner has already started promotional stints with the Buffalo Rush. A wig and hat help her to put the best face on the battle she has just endured, physically and emotionally. "Seven months ago, I never felt it would come to this," she said. "Now it's just surreal that I won't have to go into (Roswell Park Cancer Institute) for a chemo treatment ever again."

An unpleasant surprise

Sterner, a Lewiston-Porter High School graduate, got into cheerleading as a 7-year-old but also played softball, soccer and tennis as a child. She took dance and gymnastics classes, too, before focusing solely on cheerleading in high school.

She successfully tried out in 2002 for the Buffalo Bombshells, the former cheer-dance team for the Buffalo Destroyers of the Arena Football League. The Bombshells ceased operation after the Destroyers moved to Columbus, Ohio, following the 2003 season. Sterner tried out for the Buffalo Jills and the NBA's Miami Heat dance team but wasn't selected for either squad.

She probably wouldn't be a member of the Rush if not for the cancer, since the illness was the reason she returned home last December after moving to Miami in June 2004.

Sterner was working a job with medical and dental benefits with the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo but left after two weeks because an ailment identified as cat-scratch fever for almost seven months turned out to be Hodgkin's disease.

While swollen lymph nodes and the formation of lumps are common to both conditions, it took the formation of a second lump on her neck, a third biopsy and a blood test to come up with the proper diagnosis.

Hodgkin's lymphoma is a cancer that attacks the body's immune and blood-forming system and can spread to the liver, lungs and bone marrow if it goes untreated or undetected for a long time. It is most common in people age 15 to 35 and 50 to 70. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the treatment options.

Hair loss, vomiting, nausea, fatigue and loss of appetite are short-term side effects from chemo, while the long-term ones from certain drugs used in the different chemo potions include infertility and the likelihood of contracting a different type of cancer later in life.

Sterner's mother heard the bad news five days after the Thanksgiving holiday in an evening phone call from her daughter's doctor.

"It was the most devastating thing I ever heard," she said.

But not as devastating as the helplessness she felt watching Breanne throw-up nonstop for six hours after her first chemo treatment, the helplessness she felt in not being able to make the suffering stop.

"All I could do was hold her and hold her hair out of the way," Cheryl Sterner said. "It was the worst day of my life."

Breanne Sterner quickly learned there was no way to make it stop. So she did her best to think about the future, the life she dreamed about before, during and after enduring 90 minutes of chemo every other Wednesday from Jan. 3 to July 6 at Roswell Park.

She began losing her hair shortly after her first chemo treatment. Part of her "look healthy and feel healthy" approach included buying three wigs that matched her hair color before the natural locks fell out. She also has a collection of 30 to 40 hats in her wardrobe closet.

Sterner said she believes the wigs look more natural with a hat covering the top of them because the tops tend to look puffy. She plans to take sewing lessons so that she can design fashionable hats for other cancer patients.

In June, she donated a bunch of hats to the Pecoraro Salon in Lockport, where she purchased her wigs. The hats will be given to cancer patients buying hair.

Against medical advice, Sterner also did what normal healthy people do, including dining out and flying despite fears of prolonged exposure to germs with a weakened immune system.

A possible cause

While two of her grandparents had skin cancer and another dealt with colon cancer, there isn't much of a history of cancer in the family.

Since Sterner has always eaten healthy and been physically active, Cheryl Sterner said she believes her daughter gained membership into the club nobody wants to join because of her time in the Lewiston-Porter school system.

The campus sits on the buffer zone of the Lake Ontario Ordnance Works, the site where high levels of radioactive waste were stored during development of the atomic bomb during World War II. For years, there have been concerns about contamination on the school campus, but a series of tests only detected a level of arsenic behind the Community Resource Center on the north end.

Despite government assurances the campus is safe, some area residents believe otherwise, including the Sterner women.

Cheryl Sterner, who has spent the last 20 years trying to raise awareness levels regarding the evils of radioactive waste dumping, approached Ralph Nader last spring after the former presidential candidate spoke at Lewiston-Porter. She introduced him to her daughter and then showed him why she believes the waste dumping at Chemical Waste Management on the ordnance site has to be stopped by having her only child remove her hat and wig. Though one of Nader's assistants took down the Sterners' contact information, they haven't heard anything from him.

Breanne Sterner's desire to help other cancer patients is the reason she agreed to share her story.

She successfully tried out for the Buffalo Rush on June 5, finishing the daylong tryout session with the third-highest score out of the 30 prospects. While most of the judges may not have known about her illness during the tryout, it was common knowledge among most of the women at Medaille College on tryout day. Several of Sterner's friends and former Bombshell teammates attended tryouts.

Supportive teammates

Rush Cheer Director Missy Altieri was one of the first people to learn of Sterner's illness. The former Bombshell, along with teammate and good friend Lori McGowan of North Tonawanda and a bunch of other former Bombshells, helped organize a benefit, dubbed "Breanne's Battle," last May. It generated $36,000 toward medical costs.

But the support didn't end there. McGowan, a former Buffalo Jill and Rush co-captain, wore a hat while dancing with Sterner during the tryout to make her feel more comfortable.

"Usually thoughts are, How am I going to make this team?" Altieri said. "Rarely do you see someone's thoughts go toward, How am I going to make somebody else feel better?, which is what Lori did."

Members of the Rush don Buffalo Rapids caps when doing appearances and photo shoots with Sterner, without prior instruction from Altieri.

"Pro cheerleading can be very competitive, even within a team," said Altieri, a former Buffalo Jill. "But these women are extremely genuinely committed to supporting each other, and they will do whatever it takes to do that."

Sterner is working a part-time job at Villa Coffee Shop in Lewiston and is enrolled in fall classes at Niagara County Community College. She's volunteering for as many Rush assignments as possible. She's back to living a normal busy life, a life that will become more active once Rush practices begin Aug. 23.

She still gets queasy at the sight of needles and IVs because they remind her of chemo. It's a feeling she vows to overcome because she wants to volunteer at Roswell Park and help other cancer patients get through their ordeals. Until she's able to do that, she's plans to make a difference in their lives in other ways.

Besides the hats, Rapids and Rush owner Gary Nice is working on the screenplay of Sterner's story. Sterner, whose hair is growing back, is investigating the prospect of manufacturing a doll similar to Barbie specifically for little girls battling cancer. The dolls would come with removable hat and hair, along with various fashionable outfits as a way of helping the youngsters overcome the insecurity of hair loss.

She and Altieri also will serve as spokeswomen for the organization's "Rush to Recovery" program. Members of the team will make congratulatory gift baskets filled with age and gender specific items for cancer patients who have finished chemo.

Sterner celebrated her final chemo treatment by releasing a balloon from the courtyard at Roswell Park and hugging her mother and Altieri.

"When you think about it, you're congratulated on birthdays and weddings," Altieri said. "When you're through with chemo, as far as I'm concerned it's like earning a Ph.D. It's just as much work to get through that in my opinion they should be praised for getting through it."