In a season that is all about hope, Taunia Oechslin shines like a Christmas star.
During a three-year battle with breast cancer, she has been through multiple surgeries and repeated chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
She has lost her hair -- twice.
But she has remained a powerful advocate for breast-cancer prevention and treatment across the region, specifically for the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center in Windber.
When The Tribune-Democrat launched a campaign to raise breast-cancer awareness throughout the month of October, and to shed light on the top-notch doctors and treatment options available in and around Johnstown, the presumption was that Oechslin's story would be part of that effort.
But the 38-year-old Westmont mom was busy fighting what has become for her a chronic disease -- traveling to Pittsburgh for treatment three Fridays every month.
Oechslin realizes -- indeed, more than most -- that you can't just talk about breast cancer one month out of the year. She echoed the call made by doctors at local centers: Early detection -- through regular screenings, mammograms and self-examinations -- is the key to increasing a woman's chances of survival.
National reports show that one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. The disease will kill about 40,000 women in this country in 2008.
"That's a lot of women," Oechslin said. "That's why I babble on about my story. If I can get one more person to get in there to get treated and taken care of, it's more than worth it."
'Live your life'
A weaker person would have buckled long ago under the weight Oechslin bears each day.
She was first diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in May 2006. She had a mastectomy, then four rounds of chemotherapy over 12 weeks followed by 25 days of radiation. That fall, she began speaking out about breast cancer, even before her treatment concluded in January 2007.
She said: "At the end of all of that, they told me, 'You're cured until proven otherwise. Go home and live your life.' "
But there was more to come.
In March 2007, Oechslin said, she went to the hospital to have additional surgery to reduce the chance of a recurrence of the cancer. But a radiologist sent her home because she was coughing that day.
Oechslin said she didn't reschedule that preventative operation until February of this year. Afterward, tissue analysis showed Oechslin had developed cancer in her ovaries. Further tests found spots on her liver and three more on her bones.
It was Stage 4 breast cancer, the most serious level; and metastatic -- meaning it had spread to other areas of her body.
"This was like getting hit by a truck. I just wasn't expecting that news," she said. "I thought I was doing all the right things. I really thought I was being proactive by going in and having preventative surgery.
"(The doctor) said, 'What's happened to you is tragic, but we can help you.' At that time, I wasn't really hearing that. But my family was hearing it."
For many people, news that cancer has returned and spread is a crushing blow emotionally. It can be the beginning of the end.
For Oechslin, the setback led to a renewed fighting spirit. She learned that despite the advanced nature of her disease, it could be attacked with new drugs and procedures. Doctors gave her Avastin -- a drug initially developed to treat colon cancer.
"It didn't work so well on late stages of colon cancer," she said. "But they discovered it does work on breast cancer."
And Oechslin said she learned that miracles do happen.
Avastin was not available when she went in the first time for the preventative surgery. Had they found the cancer then, doctors told her, they would have turned to a less-effective treatment.
Beyond that, her cancer might not even have been detectable in early 2007. She could have had the preventative surgery and gone on with her life, not even knowing what she was carrying around inside her body.
'Shatter that silence'
Doctors tell Oechslin that her cancer will evolve with time. What works against it now might not work in six months. But, if that happens, they'll find another treatment option.
"They say we have to deal with my problem as a chronic disease," Oechslin said. "People think of cancer as something you get, and then you die. The second time I was diagnosed, that's how I felt. It's lights out. This is it. But I came to realize that there are options out there, there's treatment out there.
"Just from a mental perspective, for my own well-being, it's helpful to know that we can do one thing, then do something else, then do something else."
Oechslin works as senior director for donor recruitment with the American Red Cross Blood Services, Greater Alleghenies Region, in Richland Township. She lived in Johnstown briefly as a teenager and graduated from Westmont Hilltop High School, then moved back in 2003 to take the job with the Red Cross.
Returning to the Johnstown region, she says, may have saved her life.
"The great benefit of being here in Johnstown," she said, "is the quality of care you get from your doctors, the technology that is here, and the levels of skill and professionalism. We have everything here that you would find in a big city. But you also get that personal attention here."
Oechslin is a golf fanatic. She has several golf trophies in her office at work, alongside photographs of her family. She played in tournaments this past summer, even as she was enduring cancer treatments.
"I golfed all summer long," she said. "And I kept going in and saying, 'Please, whatever you do, don't take golf away.' They kept saying, 'We're not going to take away golf.' "
And the cancer has not taken away her commitment to the Joyce Murtha Center, where she is hailed as a hero by doctors and staff.
"It hasn't been that long since talking about breast cancer was considered taboo in this country," said Tom Kurtz, program development consultant for the breast center, Windber Research Institute and the hospital. "That silence was truly deadly. Taunia has made a personal commitment to shatter that silence. ... She has been a source of inspiration and motivation to all of us who share her passion for the eradication of breast cancer."
'The best chance I can'
At 38, Oechslin is very young to be battling breast cancer, especially at Stage 4. She said she has been the youngest person in treatment everywhere she's been since early 2006.
"The research is moving fast," she said. "It's coming quickly. It just seems like they're so close to a major breakthrough.
"And for those of us out there who are in advanced stages, hope doesn't go away. The quality of care doesn't go away. Quality of life doesn't go away. It just means things are different."
She said she draws her inspiration from her co-workers and parents, from her husband, Brian, and from her 5-year-old son, Connor.
"It does get to me sometimes," she said. "I had a breakdown while putting up the Christmas tree. Is this going to be my last Christmas? Is this going to be my last Christmas with my boy?
"You get bad news," Oechslin said. "But you still have to go home and make dinner. You still have to get up and go to work, and pick up the clothes at the dry cleaners, and plan your son's birthday party."
And keep writing that legacy of hope -- an inspiring story worthy of the season.
"We've got to focus on what's important in life," Oechslin said. "The economy's bad, but is that really what we should be thinking about at Christmas?
"I am very thankful for so many things. I'm thankful for my health, as strange as that may sound. Those tests could have come back and shown a spot on my brain, or a spot on my lung. I'm thankful for my friends and family. I'm thankful for everyone here (at the Red Cross) who has been so supportive.
"Eventually, there's going to be an end. I know that," she said. "I could be dead next year. That's the reality of this. But I'm going to fight every day to give myself the best chance I can." To see more of The Tribune-Democrat or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tribune-democrat.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2008, Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.