At 38 years old, Pamela Dixon only heard the doctor say she had cancer. Her mind came to a full stop, and the thoughts of what her young children would have to do with out her drowned out what the doctor had to say next.
"That's why I tell women to bring in a phone to record what the doctor has to say or bring someone in with you who can listen to the doctor," Dixon said. "Because the second you hear cancer, that's it. It's instantly in your brain."
The New Westminster local found a lump in her breast about three millimetres big. She booked an ultrasound appointment, and within a year after first detection, the cancer grew three times bigger.
"I found it myself during self-examination," the cancer survivor said. "It was as big as an apple seed. Ã You know your body. We rely on mammograms, but we know when something is wrong with our body."
Dixon, now 42, is about two years away from finishing her five-year survivor cycle that'll end her medication. She beat the cancer in a removal surgery that will have its four-year anniversary this Sept. 19, which put her through chemotherapy, hair loss and medication.
That's why Dixon was asked by her friends to do the Shopper's Drug Mart Weekend to End Women's Cancers on Aug. 13 and 14 for the fourth year in a row -a 60-km walk in Vancouver benefiting the B.C. Cancer Foundation.
"It was awesome," Dixon said of the two-day trek (30 km each) and camp night. "The weather was perfect. Everything about it was just great."
The weekend began with an opening ceremony at UBC's Wolfson Fields on Aug. 13 before the participants started their first steps. The weekend ended at a closing ceremony at the fields that started as soon as the last walker crossed the finish line.
Dixon was able to raise $2,500. In all, $2 million was raised this weekend and for the past eight years, the walk has raised $20 million for breast cancer research and programming.
"I can tell you that not a week goes by when I don't hear of a friend, or a friend's aunt or sister who is diagnosed," Dixon said. "I am an open book, and I tell them to call me because not knowing is the scariest part."
When Dixon underwent chemotherapy, she said her hair loss was traumatizing at first, but thanks to the quality of wigs nowadays she sported every colour she could until her hair grew back.
"I bought the wigs right here in New West," she added. "I wore brunette, blond, black, red, purple. You name it, I wore it."
Dixon said on the first day a woman who walked with the crowd had just finished her fourth treatment of eight, while others had to leave to get their radiation treatment but returned to finish the walk.
"There were tons of people like that," she noted. "When I was sick as a dog I couldn't even stand. I am so proud of the people who came and walked under those circumstances."
Dixon's team, with friends who have done the walk since its onset, all walk together the entire way.
"Once you find out you have cancer and things settle in and you know the doctor has a game plan and this is what's going to happen, you stop thinking how your kids will survive without you, and you start to think how you are going to take care of your kids while you're in chemotherapy," Dixon said. "Once you get your anti-nausea pills, treatment is just fine. It's different for every single person. They tailor your cancer treatment to you and your lifestyle."
Although claiming to do the walk for selfish reasons, Dixon also said she did it so treatments get better to a point where they aren't needed anymore.
For more information or to donate to research, visit www.bccancerfoundation.com.
