Shalundria Bell was on vacation in California when she felt a lump in her breast. A screening turned into a trip to the local emergency room, followed by two biopsies. The first biopsy was negative, but the second biopsy was positive. She immediately traveled back home to Lancaster and went to the Parkland breast center where she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in February 2014 at the age of 30.
In addition to beating cancer, she needed to be a mom to her two daughters who were ages 3 and 9 when she was diagnosed. Her girls watched her go through four months of chemotherapy and multiple surgeries. She tried to be positive, to set an example for them, to show them you can conquer anything if you stay positive. But that’s not always easy.
“Chemo takes everything out of you,” she said. “And all my girls wanted to do was play. How do you tell a 3-year-old that you don’t feel like that? But I had to show my girls you can be strong and show them they can get through anything. They are girls, too, and if one day they go through something similar to this, I want them to have that same attitude. I had to show them that they could do it.”
Today Shalundria is cancer-free and playing with her girls every chance she gets.
“The care I received at Parkland was awesome,” she added. “Everyone was so helpful. They always said the cancer was curable and did everything they could to help me live, to be here to raise my girls.”
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