Twelve years ago, Lawrence resident Karen Flanders was diagnosed with breast cancer. Doctors detected the cancer through a routine mammogram, and then confirmed the diagnosis through a second mammogram and biopsy. She had no family history of cancer of any kind.

“It was just a real fluke-y thing,” Flanders said. “At the time I thought, ‘Who, me? Cancer?'”

Karen Flanders, left, and Dianna Nelson, also a breast cancer survivor, both of Lawrence, participate in a Relay for Life of Douglas County event.

Flanders endured a couple of operations where her surgeon tried to get the cancer with lumpectomies, but she couldn’t be sure she had removed all the tumor. The surgeon then recommended a mastectomy, and a second doctor concurred with the recommendation.

So Flanders had a mastectomy and then reconstructive surgery about seven months after her diagnosis.

Flanders, child care licensing coordinator at the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, said the most difficult part was the recovery and the need to accept help.

“I’m such a do-it-myself person. Gotta keep going,” she said. “When a friend called and said she and another person were going to come clean my house, I just burst out crying because it was like I should be doing this myself. I just had to learn to let people help me and that was really hard.”

Flanders is extremely grateful that she had the help and support of her family, friends, church, and colleagues at Douglas County Child Development Association, where she worked at the time. They not only cleaned her house, but also brought meals and sent cards.

One of her colleagues, Dianna Nelson, was a breast cancer survivor and she shared her experiences, which Flanders said was helpful. Flanders advises people to help loved ones who are sick because they won’t ask for it.

“Don’t ask how you can help. Just say you’re going to come and do this or that,” she said.

Flanders said the breast cancer really isn’t in the past because she’s considered high-risk, and every time she has her yearly mammogram, she thinks, “What if?”

“My faith continues to help keep me positive,” she said.

Flanders has participated many years in the annual Douglas County Relay for Life event that raises money for cancer research and awareness about the disease. She is hopeful that one day there will be a cure.

“If we could find a cure, that would be good,” she said.

Flanders encourages others to get a yearly mammogram. That’s how they found her cancer.

“If there’s cancer, they can catch it in the early stages,” she said.

–Karrey Britt is the communications coordinator for the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department. Contact her at kbritt@ldchd.org or 856-7362.