When cancer strikes, any kind of cancer, it is death knocking on the door. It changes your life. It becomes all about survival.

Thankfully, helping hands exist. In the Wood River Valley, Expedition Inspiration for Breast Cancer Research, a Ketchum-based nonprofit, brings some of the most renowned researchers and oncologists from across the country to meet in Sun Valley each spring. The event includes a public symposium at which people can pose questions to the experts. Awareness is also advanced by such promotions as National Breast Cancer Month, observed each October.

In the United States, breast cancer is diagnosed in more than 200,000 women annually. In their search for its cause, researchers have focused on a number of variables including environmental factors, diet, exercise, age of first menstrual period, age at childbirth, breast feeding, smoking, family history and age at menopause.

Despite the increasing beneficial research, being an advocate for one’s health is still the best form of preventative medicine. Pap smears, which can detect ovarian and cervical cancer, become a yearly necessity for women of, and over, child-bearing years. As a woman reaches 40, an annual mammogram should be a required chore, just as renewing insurance and changing batteries in the smoke detector is.

According to the U.S. Census, in 2005 roughly a quarter of the 21,000 residents of Blaine County were women over the age of 18. According to the Idaho Hospital Association, 15 breast cancer diagnoses were made that year in Blaine County. Put another way, approximately three out of every 1,000 women in the county were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005.

St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center provides 1,800 to 2,000 mammograms per year. In 2008, the hospital will provide digital mammography, with an expectation of more early cancer diagnoses.

Each woman’s experience with the disease is different. Yet similar strains of hope and life affirmation run through their stories. Being a breast cancer survivor is a club one doesn’t want to join, but as survivor and Ketchum resident Renata Beguin put it, "It’s helped me remember to be grateful every day, to be thankful for my totally blessed life and look for the grace in everything."

As the millennium began, Prue Hemmings, art director, mother and, at the time, businesswoman, was diagnosed with Stage II metastatic breast cancer. She was 52, a prime age for a woman to contract breast cancer.

"I hadn’t had a mammogram for 10 years," she said. "I had no insurance at the time and I saw something in the paper about a free mammogram and a nurse found it. I was going through a divorce and didn’t have much money. I hadn’t been feeling well, sort of a low-grade illness. I was working very, very hard.

"I don’t know what caused it, but I had a cyst on my breast after William (her youngest of four children) was born," continued Hemmings. "We (she and her ex-husband, the late British actor David Hemmings) were filming in Tunisia. I was on antibiotics and had to stop breast-feeding. That may have caused a weakness in that milk duct. The tumor was in that exact spot."

Fortunately, her tumor, which had spread into her lymph nodes, was slow-growing.

"They told me I had to have chemo and radiation. I have four children, and I wanted the best possible chance to survive. I needed it out that week. I had a partial mastectomy in California, and I had chemo in Twin Falls every three weeks while still working at That’s Entertainment (a Ketchum party rental business). That was followed by seven weeks of radiation. I wore wigs for a while, but finally said, ‘Oh, the hell with it.’

"After my treatment, I told my partner in That’s Entertainment, Janet (Fleming), that my values had changed. The pressure was too much, so I gave up my job. I was re-evaluating my life and didn’t want to work every day. I wanted to see my children, to read and write. I made a list of things I wanted to do in my life.

"Just making money was not what I wanted to be doing. I wanted to work every day for something fulfilling that validates my life, which is why I am now working for a nonprofit (Ketchum’s nexStage Theatre). I wanted to make sure my kids got through college, and they have, amazingly.

"I wanted to be financially secure again and buy a house; and I did. I bought a house in Fairfield, and I commute. It was just because of the positiveness of the whole thing. What changed was my whole perception. I was just more aware of my true value and started enjoying myself. Cancer doesn’t diminish your life—it aligns you more correctly in your life.

"I feel very confident now. I’m one year cancer-free. That’s huge. It’s such a blessing. Such a feeling to know I’ll be here to enjoy the rest of this incredible life. It sharpens your ability to enjoy things. It’s amazing how much I can enjoy waking up to birds singing. I love my life. It’s brilliant."

In 1999, when Carol Tessier’s young son Connor was still crawling, she found a lump in her breast. At age 36, she’d yet to have a mammogram. Shortly thereafter, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"First, I felt shock," Tessier said. "Second of all, I had a small child. I had to do everything I could. He was only a year old. I went right into survival mode."

A lumpectomy, two rounds of chemotherapy and seven weeks of radiation in Twin Falls followed, ending in spring 2000. Not long after, Tessier’s marriage also ended. "It’s really tough on the husbands," she said. "It changes the relationship dynamics. You’re thinking of surviving. It’s way bigger."

Fortunately, Tessier had a good job managing The Galleria in Ketchum, where she was not only needed, but cherished. "I had the most awesome friends and employers—I never drove myself to Twin. Someone drove me every day, five days a week."

But, because her surgical scars didn’t heal properly, the journey continued and the fear remained. "It hurt, so I kept after the doctors. Finally, Dr. Alice Police realized it needed to be re-excised. It was done three separate times and each time proved to be scar tissue.

"You are your only advocate," she continued. "Doctors don’t have time. That’s not their job. If you have a feeling something’s wrong, you need to go with your gut. You need to keep on it."

More than anything, Tessier’s cancer clarified issues in her life.

"I have the best friends. I’m much healthier. I exercise a lot, and I make better life choices. I don’t live the disease. I don’t want to, and I’m not going there again."

As for her diet, she said she eats lean proteins, vegetables and no wheat. She exercises regularly and can be found at the gym every day of the week. "I try to lower my stress. That’s my focus."

In November, she will participate in the 60-mile, Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk in San Diego. In order to simplify her life, Tessier also recently opened her own business in Ketchum, Carol’s Bookkeeping. Her cozy office is sunny and plant-filled, a place that’s quiet and, yes, stress free.

Bellevue resident Karen Rossi was 42, and the mother of two young children, when she found a hard, pea-sized lump in her left breast.

"It was a small tumor," she said. "I had my yearly mammogram in October 1998; in January I went to Dr. Kathryn Woods for a check up. And in May I found the lump. That’s how fast it was."

Dr. Alice Police, who now works in California, did the lumpectomy at the former Moritz Hospital in Sun Valley. Based on several recommendations from doctors, in and out of state, Rossi opted for radiation only. For five years following, she took the estrogen-blocking drug tamoxifen. Nine years later, Rossi is the picture of health: fit, busy and happy. She’s never had a recurrence and said she barely thinks about it.

When Dr. Police told Karen her about her diagnosis, her reaction was, "I have a four- and a six-year-old. I can’t have cancer."

Tracing the genetic source of her cancer was difficult. "I have no family history," she said. "I tell my daughter, ‘We don’t have a family tree. We’re a limb.’" Her late mother had always refused to speak about her past to Karen.

After her surgery, Rossi made a daily trip to Magic Valley Regional Medical Center 70 miles away in Twin Falls for "one minute on the table for radiation," she said with a laugh. "I was the oncology department’s poster child. They said they wished everyone did as well as I did."

A hairstylist, Rossi worked every morning and quit at noon to drive to Twin Falls. "Sure, I was tired," she said. "I was scared to death at first, but I didn’t let it get me down. I entertained (the oncology nurses), but that’s my nature.

"My cancer is in my past; it really is. I still have my breasts, my hair and my period," she said with a laugh. "It’s been a pretty simple go of it. Where we live makes such a difference. People are in shape. They’re fit. If you’re not healthy to begin with, it’s harder to recover from this. The other day in my salon, there were four women, and we were all survivors. There’s an overall awareness here, and it’s easier to get help."

Shelley Kuder, 50, has lived in the Wood River Valley since 1975. Unlike most people hereabouts, she’s next to a native, having been born and raised in Jerome. Her father was a logger in Stanley, and her mother lived in Jerome with her eight brothers and sisters. Ketchum was their meeting place.

Last summer, Kuder felt a lump the size of a quarter and thought, "Something is going on here." She called a doctor in Boise, who could not see her for two weeks, and even then would only do a consultation at that time.

"I wanted it out, so I called Dr. Ralph Campanale at St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center. He removed it two days later right there in his office. It was triple negative metastasized breast cancer. It couldn’t be treated with hormone therapy such as tamoxifen. Two weeks later, Campanale removed lymph nodes and the sentinel node that proved free of cancerous cells."

Kuder, who is a single mother to one son, Sam, was determined not to submit herself to chemotherapy or radiation. So, she found an alternative treatment center nearby, with naturopath Harold Klassen, who runs a biomechanics clinic in Aberdeen, Idaho ("of all places," said Kuder).

He put her on a strict diet of herbs, minerals, vitamins, chelation and essiac tea. She cut her hair off, which was down to her back, and had it sent to Locks of Love, a program that uses donated hair to make hair pieces for people with cancer.

"I lost 30 pounds and felt great," she said. But at the urging of her family she went to Boise oncologist Dr. Norman Zuckerman. "They call him Stormin’ Norman. He talked to me about being there for little Sam. He said, ‘Why not do all three—alternative, radiation and chemotherapy.’ It’s a metastatic disease; you have to do everything you can. You don’t know if a little teeny cancer cell got away."

Her family agreed. With Klassen’s approval, and the approval to continue her alternative treatment, she began a four-month course of chemotherapy in Meridian, followed by radiation in Twin Falls. She finished her treatment in June.

"I am 99.9 percent convinced that I’m done with it. The chemo wasn’t too bad, I think because I was so healthy from the alternative stuff. But I had my chemo days, when you get up and vomit and are tired and don’t want to see anyone. I had a lot of help between my family and my church, the Life Church. Sam really came through and helped me; he’s very independent."

For Kuder, the hardest aspect of the entire ordeal was dealing with insurance. She is a bookkeeper with her own business and had a healthy-person type of plan through Regence Blue Shield.

"It’s not for people with breast cancer," she said. "Wood River Insurance called me and said I could switch back to my earlier program, which was a better policy. From July to December 2006, I was still on my old plan. But I was racking up doctor bills. There was something like $20,000 that insurance didn’t cover. People assume things."

She called her life insurance policyholder and found that they would pay disability because she was unable to work full time.

"Call people. Talk to your insurance company. You have to make sure your insurance will cover things. There were travel costs, food, hotels when I was getting chemo, $120 a week in gas. I did get a donation from the church, but the financial burden is so great. You think, ‘Oh my gosh, how am I going to get through this?’ I’ve really had to rely on my faith. I’d get my Bible out and read. It seemed those verses were written for me."

This past summer, a benefit was held for her by friends in the valley to help defray the reminder of her medical bills, which were close to $60,000.

"It’s amazing, once again, how people will offer help," she continued. "Our community has brought forth people that are very caring. I’m grateful to have the friends I have in this valley, to have my son who’s been a trooper, and my church, who I call the prayers of the saints. That’s what gave me the courage to go on.

"I’m not glad I got breast cancer, but I’m grateful I got to go on this journey. You have to live your life everyday as best you can."