Donna Arenburg
When Donna Arenburg graduated from night school in February 2005, she stood out in her class of insurance professionals. For one thing, she had the highest marks in her class. For another, not too many other grads at least, not too many of the women were bald.
But then, not too many other grads had finished chemotherapy treatment three weeks earlier. And it’s a safe bet that no one on stage with Donna that night had just conquered cancer for the fourth time.
Donna was diagnosed and treated for rectal cancer in 1994. Then, in 2001, doctors found a spot on her right lung, which was cancerous. She had surgery to remove the tumour, and thought that would be the end it. But the cancer came back in 2003. This time, surgeons removed her entire right lung, and she was back to work within six weeks.
“Finding out the cancer was back was a huge blow,” she says. “I remember thinking, ‘Who could possibly live through this a third time?’”
By the summer of 2004, though, she wasn’t well. Another tumour was found, in her remaining lung. Surgery wasn’t an option, so doctors used radiation, laser therapy, and chemotherapy to shrink the tumour.
The repeated diagnoses, surgeries, and treatments were tough, but Donna credits her extended support network for helping her get through: “My mom was a rock. She drove me to treatment in Hamilton every day I needed to go. My husband always told me I was stronger than anyone else he’d ever known. My sister provided comic relief. My niece and stepson gave me a reason to fight. And my friends kept telling me to fight.”
The Niagara Unit of the Canadian Cancer Society provided relaxation tapes that helped Donna sleep. And when her night-school graduation approached, they offered to lend her a wig.
“So my mom and I went down there one afternoon and tried on every wig they had, from short and dark to long, blonde, and curly. We had so much fun I’ve never laughed so hard in my life.”
In the end, though, Donna’s head went bare. The former hairdresser whose biggest fear about cancer had been losing her hair decided that, for her, being bald “didn’t really matter. It didn’t bother me any more. Having cancer was part of who I was, so I decided to go as I was.”
