We Survived Breast Cancer Treatment

My sister and I enjoy traveling together. We are both planners. Planning our trips is almost as fun as the adventure,,,almost. We often egg each other on to try new things but, truth be told, Gayle is more adventurous than me. This is us in South Africa in 2019 after we swam out to the edge of Victoria Falls in Africa.  We may look like we loved it but we realized we were too old for that adventure!  We are smiling because we survived.

At the end of each international sister trip we take we talk about what is still on our bucket list.  After a trip to England and France in 2024 we settled on the South Pacific.  We were in the preliminary stages of talking about doing it in October of 2025.  Gayle and I met in New York City in January of 2025 for an extravaganza of eight shows in 10 days.  The first night we were there Gayle told me she had found a lump in her breast and had a mammogram scheduled for when she got home.  It turned out to be breast cancer and Gayle started down the road of treatment.  We set aside our plans for the South Pacific.

When her radiation was over we talked about planning a domestic celebration trip to Santa Fe and Taos.  Then I found lump in my breast, which turned out to be cancer.  Gayle flew out to care for me after my bilateral mastectomy.  What are the odds that two sisters are diagnosed with cancer in the same year?  We did not travel to the South Pacific or to New Mexico.

Once I recovered from surgery we began planning our South Pacific adventure again.  This time we are going full out.  It is a celebration trip!  We both survived breast cancer treatment and we are going to enjoy life! We leave for New Zealand in a couple days.  We will spend three weeks enjoying the North and South Islands.  Then we will fly to French Polynesia — two nights in Tahiti and four nights in Bora Bora.  Adventure awaits…