Breast cancer survivor volunteers as a way to “take” back as well as “give” back.
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Highlights
- Experience the rewards of volunteering yourself. For a list of all the opportunities, click here.
- A family history of breast cancer does increase the risk.
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Family History of Breast Cancer
The risk of having breast cancer is higher among women whose close blood relatives have or have had this disease; however, altogether, only about 20% to 30% of women with breast cancer have a family member with the disease. This means that most women who get breast cancer (70% to 80%) do not have a family history of the disease.
- Having one first-degree relative – mother, sister, or daughter – with breast cancer approximately doubles a woman's risk.
- Having 2 first-degree relatives increases her risk about 5-fold.
- Even women with a history of breast cancer in a father or brother have an increased risk themselves.
Learn how you can stay well by taking steps to detect breast cancer early – when it is small and easier to treat. Visit cancer.org/breastcancer or call 1-800-227-2345.
Sue Sgambato lost her mother and her grandmother to breast cancer, so when she was diagnosed herself at age 36, she acted quickly.
Because of her family history, Sgambato opted to have the breast removed. Then her doctor noticed thickening in her other breast, so she decided to have it removed as well. As she was dealing with these major changes, additional tests showed abnormalities in her left ovary. She decided to have a total hysterectomy. "I just didn't want to risk it," Sgambato says. "And I have never regretted the surgery for even one day."
Sgambato channeled her anger toward cancer.
After her surgery and rounds of chemo, Sgambato needed a way to channel all of her feelings of anger toward cancer, especially her feelings of grief and loss over her mother's 13-year battle with breast cancer. So she started volunteering with the American Cancer Society.
"I wanted to be with other women who were going through treatment and facing similar struggles," she recalls. "And I wanted to honor my mother's memory. The American Cancer Society offered me a way to do that."
American Cancer Society’s Reach To Recovery® was a perfect fit.
Reach To Recovery is a program that matches specially trained breast cancer survivors, like Sgambato, with newly diagnosed breast cancer patients to provide those patients with emotional support and guidance. "When you're diagnosed with cancer, you feel like your whole body has turned against you,” Sgambato says. “Through Reach To Recovery, I felt like I was really helping someone through that trauma." And that was just the start of her many years of volunteering and fighting back.
Sgambato went on to do a segment on breast cancer for her local television station and was then asked to speak at an American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer® event. Then, in 2002, she went to the American Cancer Society Relay For Life® Celebration On The Hill® in Washington, D.C. At this daylong event to remember loved ones lost, celebrate those who fight on, and to send a message to elected officials that their support is needed to eliminate cancer, Sgambato had a bit of an epiphany.
“I realized that as long as I have a voice, I'm going to speak for those who lost their lives to this disease."
Indeed she has. Sgambato has made phone calls, written letters, and made personal visits to her elected officials on the state and federal levels on numerous occasions. Says a former American Cancer Society staff member, "I'm not sure Sue knows how to say the word 'no' when it comes to an advocacy effort.”
More than an advocate, Sgambato is a participant, too.
Sgambato is a longtime Relay For Life participant, often attending several events per year. In 2004, she and her husband actually decided to renew their vows on their wedding anniversary at a Relay event in Burrillville, Rhode Island. "I had a cake and a veil – the whole bit,” Sgambato says. “It felt like the right thing to do since for half our married life my husband had shared me with the American Cancer Society," she joked.
Her life’s purpose fulfilled.
Now 51, Sgambato feels that through her work as a volunteer with the American Cancer Society, she has been able to make a positive difference in people’s lives – to give back. But she also feels that her volunteering has given her a way to take back – to take back what she’s lost to cancer.
“Volunteering turns all my feelings of grief and powerlessness toward cancer into real power,” she says. “Every time I volunteer, I feel like I'm fighting back.”
In 2008, in appreciation of all this volunteering, Sgambato was recognized with an American Cancer Society St. George Award for distinguished service.
You can help save lives and create a world with more birthdays. To find opportunities to save lives while fulfilling your own, call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.
"Every time I volunteer, I feel like I'm fighting back." – Sue Sgambato, volunteer and breast cancer survivor
