2013: Leslie Schroeder takes big year “one step at a time”
But she tempers her approach to the year with the lessons of a stage 3c ovarian cancer experience, which has taught her to take life “one step at a time.”
That’s a good plan for someone who has so much on her agenda as the New Year begins. A busy real estate agent who has been married for 31 years and has two grown sons, Leslie is approaching the third anniversary of her diagnosis this spring. She is also managing ticket sales for Calgary’s first Ovarian Cancer Canada LOVE HER event on March 7, and she and her husband Marc have joined the Expedition of Hope to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in September.
Photo: Leslie and Marc Schroeder
“I feel very blessed to be here and to have had the positive experiences that I’m having,” says Leslie. “I’m looking forward to LOVE HER because it will be wonderful to see the reception we get – and I know it will be great – and the Kili climb will be a little more personal.”
As an Ovarian Cancer Canada volunteer, Leslie has delivered several Knowledge is Power public awareness programs, including a jam-packed session for employees of an oil company in Calgary. She was then asked to join the LOVE HER committee to help plan an evening of fashion, comedy, cocktails, auctions and music in support of Ovarian Cancer Canada (LOVE HER is also being held in Toronto on February 28).
“When I found out I had ovarian cancer, I felt very alone,” says Leslie. “This LOVE HER experience has helped me to realize that I am not alone. People are receptive, they are willing to listen and help. When we approach people about this event they say, ‘Ovarian cancer? How can I help? What can I do?’”
Leslie learned about the Expedition of Hope in a Seeds of Hope Newswire article last fall that featured expedition leader Macon Dunnagan, who had just completed a record 25th summit of Africa’s highest peak.
“I read it and I thought, ‘I want to do that – I want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro,’” Leslie recalls. “I forwarded the article to Marc and he quickly replied, ‘Let’s do it.’”
After joining Macon, Ovarian Cancer Canada staff organizers and other potential Expedition of Hope participants from across the country for a teleconference information session, Leslie decided to do the climb.
She is dedicating her efforts to the memory of five friends who died between August 15 and Thanksgiving 2012 – three from cancer, one from another disease, and yet another suddenly.
“They all had dreams and things they wanted to do, and I know they didn’t get to do some of them,” says Leslie. “Those five deaths were the catalyst -- they were really weighing on me. I kept asking how I could heal myself over these losses. I feel I need to do this climb for my friends.”
Leslie also believes that her participation in Knowledge is Power, the Ovarian Cancer Canada Walk of Hope (her team has raised over $20,000 to date), LOVE HER and the Expedition of Hope have all played an important part in her personal journey with ovarian cancer.
In May 2010, Leslie’s family doctor was quick to investigate her symptoms of bloating and an overall feeling of being unwell. An ultrasound identified masses on her ovaries, and Leslie, then age 49, was referred directly to the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary for further investigation. After more tests, she underwent surgery on July 5 and was diagnosed with stage 3c ovarian cancer. Small tumours had also spread to the bowel and Leslie was told that following three chemotherapy treatments, surgeons would go back in to try and remove them.
Chemotherapy began in August and after the third treatment, Leslie underwent a CT scan on her 29th wedding anniversary in October.
“You are our one-in-a-million,” one of her team of doctors reported back to Leslie two days later. “Your CT scan came back perfectly clear. There is no evidence of disease.”
The second surgery was no longer required so Leslie proceeded with her final three chemotherapy treatments, which were completed early in 2011. She has been carefully followed up since that time and there has been no further sign of cancer.
Within a few weeks of completing her treatment, Leslie began volunteering for Ovarian Cancer Canada.
“I needed to do something to help, to give back,” she explains. “Before I was diagnosed, I didn’t know anything about ovarian cancer.”
Leslie looks forward to her family time, travelling, work, LOVE HER and the Expedition of Hope in 2013. She finds looking too far into the future can make her feel uneasy.
“I’m hoping for a healthy year and I believe it will be. Any cancer journey is one step at a time. Am I going to be well six months from now? Really, what you are concerned about is am I going to be well tomorrow."