Cancer survivor likens
battle to college athletics

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Few people ever get to play a sport at a big-time NCAA university.
But to put the experience into perspective, it’s a lot like fighting cancer, according to Northeast Philadelphia residents Jeff and Nancy Etsell.
A little over two decades ago, North Catholic graduate Jeff and Mobile, Ala., native Nancy were "jocks" at the University of Alabama. Jeff excelled at baseball, while Nancy called the volleyball court her domain.
After school, they married, moved to Mayfair and began raising three sons.
But five years ago, their destiny changed forever when Nancy was diagnosed with breast cancer, joining the 1.4 million Americans diagnosed each year with some form of cancer. She was 41.
The eight months of treatment she endured were harder on her and her loved ones than any sports season could ever be. But to this day, Nancy is still winning.
On Sunday, she and hundreds of other cancer survivors and their supporters gathered at the Cancer Center at Frankford Hospital’s Torresdale Campus to celebrate the second chance in life offered them by their own will to persevere with the help of family, friends and medical professionals.
It was the hospital’s fifth annual National Cancer Survivors Day event. The day featured food and family activities, all based on a country-western theme. More important, it gave cancer survivors and their loved ones an opportunity to greet one another and exchange experiences.
"It’s to honor all of those patients living with cancer and to recognize the contributions of the families and health-care workers," said Heidi Volpe, the Cancer Center’s administrative director. "And it helps bring awareness."
Awareness is a key element of any cancer-fighting program. According to Dr. Scot Fisher, Nancy Etsell’s radiation oncologist at Frankford-Torresdale, a well-educated public leads to more screenings, early detection and a better survival rate.
Etsell, an administrator at Temple Dental School, discovered her cancer early thanks to a routine at-home self-exam. One day in early 2002, she felt a lump and called her doctor. The results of a biopsy came back on April 1 that year. The growth was malignant.
Etsell was driving back from the Jersey Shore when she took the call. Her husband was in a separate car farther ahead on the road.
"It was like an April Fools joke," she said. "I had no family history. I had a mammogram done (the prior) July, and I found a lump on my own in March."
Her condition was classified as stage two on a four-stage scale, based on the size of the cancer. But the treatable nature of the condition didn’t make accepting the news any easier.
Initially, she cried so hard that she had to pull her car over. Sons Derrek, now 17, and Ryan, now 15, were in the car too.
"My youngest was ten and asked me if I was going to die," Etsell recalled.
She immediately called her husband and her oldest son Justin, now 21, about the test results.
"That was like a punch in the stomach," Jeff Etsell said. "It was very emotional. But shortly thereafter, it was ‘get down to business and let’s beat it.’"
Within hours, they began the search for a place to get treatment. They called other doctors, sought recommendations from friends and searched the Internet for information. They decided to go to Frankford-Torresdale’s Cancer Center.
"I did my research and Dr. Julia Kennedy is why I went to Frankford-Torresdale," Nancy Etsell said of her medical oncologist.
Etsell’s treatment started right away with surgery, followed by eight chemotherapy sessions, each 21 days apart, followed by 32 radiation treatments. The ordeal continued through Dec. 17, more than eight months after her diagnosis.
Treatment presents many challenges, led by the physical. Each chemotherapy session would last two to five hours, after which Etsell would remain sick for the next week.
Generally speaking, cancer patients also face emotional, financial and professional challenges, Kennedy explained. But Etsell handled them as well as anyone.
"She’s an extremely strong-willed person and a very dedicated wife and mother," Kennedy said. "She basically continued to live her life to the fullest, considering the changes to her physical abilities at the time."
Etsell thought of her children more than herself.
"I had to worry about them. They were young. I was their mother," she said. "I did whatever I had to do to survive."
She had support all around her, as well. Jeff, who works at the original Chickie’s & Pete’s on Robbins Avenue, drove her to all of her treatments and doctor’s appointments. Justin had his driver’s license and was able to take his brothers where they needed to go.
Friends were always sending cards and food to the house and offering to take her out.
"You really don’t know how many friends you really have until something like this happens," Etsell said. "I call them my angels."
They even found a way to make light of things.
When Nancy began losing her hair and chose to cut it off, each of the boys took a turn with the scissors.
"She got a wig, but never wore the wig and wore scarves instead," Jeff Etsell said. "I think she looked beautiful bald. (Treatment) is a marathon, and you have to take that pace, and we did make light of it."
Yet after five years, a period that included two of her sons’ graduations from North Catholic along with the family’s move to the Crispin Gardens section, she must remain diligent considering her medical history.
She still sees Dr. Kennedy every six months and Dr. Fisher once a year. And she gets annual mammograms.
Every year on her birthday, March 11, Etsell sends a card to Kennedy.
"To thank her for the years she gave me," Etsell said.
Also, she is an advocate for breast-cancer awareness and advocacy to help others survive like she has.
"There is nothing I could ever do to thank that cancer center for what they did," she said.
For information about the Cancer Center at Frankford Hospital-Torresdale, call 215-612-5460. ••