Editor’s note: This is one in a series of stories exploring the survivorship journeys of Novant Health Cancer Institute patients. You’ll find all the stories here. We celebrate our survivors and share their stories to showcase how surviving – and thriving – after a cancer diagnosis is possible.
For Meredith Campbell, it all started with nerve pain in her left arm that never seemed to go away. Her hand would fall asleep, with a relentless pins-and-needles sensation. Then there was the lump, which she discovered in November 2019.
“I knew something was wrong inside of me, but I didn’t know what,” she said.
After several physical exams, a mammogram, an ultrasound and a needle biopsy, Meredith got a name for the source of her pain in December 2019: HER2 breast cancer.
That diagnosis would kick off a grueling treatment regimen of aggressive chemotherapy to shrink her mass, a double mastectomy with reconstruction and dozens of rounds of radiation and additional chemo.
What helped her get through it all? Community.
“There is a silver lining,” she said. “It’s support groups, finding people like you, finding nonprofits in your community. Being connected to someone like you who’s going through it with you — it’s the best medicine out there."
Find the cancer care you deserve
“Talk to people around you. Talk to the person in the chair to the left of you, talk to the person in front of you. Just ask questions. It doesn’t matter if it’s breast, ovarian, bone or squamous cell — it’s still cancer. Your infusions are still similar, your radiation is still similar.
“You may be a new patient in the chair, but to the left or to the right of you, you might have someone who’s been doing it awhile, and they can tell you tricks and tips to help make your process go smoother.”
Meredith also advised to never Google your diagnosis; she recommends you search hashtags on Instagram instead. Her searches there led her to find three new “breasties” — women across the country, all near the
same age and all diagnosed with breast cancer within a few weeks of each other.
“They were my safe haven and my life support,” Meredith said. “We had our tears. We had our crying. We had our punching the walls. We had our moments, but my breasties helped me get through it. They kept me sane.”
In addition, Meredith also discovered local nonprofits — Lumps of Laughter and Hope Abounds — that connected her with resources and support throughout her journey. She even helped lead the local Lumps of Laughter chapter during the pandemic.
“I helped women talk about their experience,” she said. “If you are depressed, if you need help, or if you have good stories or bad stories, it helps to vent, to talk it out. That really helped me during my journey.”
Meredith’s employer, coworkers and family joined forces to commemorate her dedication to helping others — even as she was fighting her own battle — by donating two victory bells in her honor. Meredith was the first survivor to ring the bell at Novant Health Zimmer Cancer Center in Wilmington, North Carolina.
“Walking past that bell in Zimmer makes me light up,” she said. “Just seeing it hang on the wall gives you something to shoot for when you’ve had a really tough treatment, when you’ve had a really hard time. Now cancer-free, Meredith is sure her journey will always be part of who she is.
“It changed me completely,” she said. “I’m starting to look more like myself again now that my hair is getting more length on it. But I am not the same person I was in 2019.
“I’ve had so many people come up to me and tell me, ‘You’re so strong! You’re so strong!’ and I’m like, ‘Screw that! No, I’m not.’ I didn’t ask to be this strong. I didn’t want to be this strong. But I had to be this strong because I’m only given one life. You just kind of have to say that it’s in God’s hands and that I was given it for a reason. This is my reason: to try to help other people get through it.”
