“Don’t shut out the people who are trying to help you.”

Amy Gardner had what she calls a “weird” cancer. The official description for her cancer was “undifferentiated sarcoma.” In other words, she had a small tumour on her left rib cage by her heart. “As far as I know, there’s only one boy in the United States who has had it.”

That’s why it was so difficult for doctors to diagnose her cancer. It took four years of tests to determine what it was. Amy underwent chemotherapy for 27 weeks. As a result of her treatment, her physical appearance changed. “I didn’t mind losing my hair. And I gained 50 pounds because of the steroids that I was on. So here I am, this bald, fat chick. Then I got acne really bad. It was so bad it looked like alien zits. So I went to my doctor and said, ‘You have to do something about this.’”

As a result, Amy’s doctor lessened her steroid dosage and the acne cleared up. Amy explains why she challenged her doctor: “When you have cancer, there’s enough stuff taken away from you. If you can keep one thing, you’ll feel better.”

Amy strongly believes that it’s important to be pro-active when it comes to being treated for cancer. She encourages people with cancer to talk to their health-care team about ways to reduce any side effects or make them easier to deal with. “If you can fix it, fix it.”

As a single person living alone, she also believes in the importance of being self reliant. Her mother wanted Amy to move in with her during her recovery but Amy declined. She advises: “Be self-reliant as much as you can be. But don’t shut out the people who are trying to help you. They may not know how to help you. So you have to tell them how.”

So what does Amy suggest that you say to someone living with cancer? “I would like them to say, ‘What can I do for you?’ or ‘How are you feeling. I’m here to listen.”

Amy has been cancer free since 2000. She has lost 65 pounds and is healthy enough to juggle two jobs, bowl in a 5-pin league and go camping whenever she can.