Danielle Erwin is the Honorary Patient of the 2024 Seacoast Cancer 5K.
Its safe to say that 2020 was a year most people would like to forget. For Danielle Erwin though, 2020 was pretty great. In September, she married the love of her life, Eric, in a beautiful, custom-made gown her friend helped design, and she was settling into their home and enjoying married life with her new husband and their senior rescue dogs.
In November, Danielle celebrated her 40th birthday. Because of this milestone, and at her doctor’s recommendation, Danielle scheduled her very first mammogram for December 30, 2020. The appointment was standard, but within a few hours of returning to work at Wentworth-Douglass Health Partners, the radiologist called.
“I knew something was wrong when they called me right away,” says Danielle. “When you hear ‘the doctor would like to speak to you’ – no one ever thinks it’s good news.” Danielle was asked to come back for an ultrasound and another mammogram. Surprised and trying not to panic, she went in for a second mammogram and ultrasound of her left breast. It didn’t go unnoticed that the woman performing the exam kept stopping to take measurements. When the exam was done, the doctor told Danielle there were two spots on her breast and that she needed a biopsy.
“You’re told not to panic, that it could be nothing,” reflects Danielle. “But waiting for the results is one of the most difficult parts of this journey, because your mind will create every worst-case scenario.” On January 18, 2021, Danielle got the call no one wants to get – it was cancer.
The next day, she went to see David Coppola, MD, medical director of Surgical Oncology at the Mass General Cancer Center at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital. He looked at Danielle and asked if she was ‘freaking out,’ to which she gave a snarky, ‘well, yeah!’ Dr. Coppola, in a very calm and confident way said: “Why? This isn’t going to kill you.” And with that, Danielle was ready to face her diagnosis and give it everything she had.
For the next five months Danielle describes a ‘whirlwind of appointments’ – meeting doctors and nurses, more MRIs and mammograms, finding more spots and having more procedures (including a lumpectomy) and settling into her new reality. “I felt like I was walking through a thick forest of trees, just trying to navigate my way out,” she says. “It was exhausting.” Once the tumors were out, Danielle completed 21 rounds of radiation.
Through it all, Danielle had her support team including her friends, family and husband, Eric to remind her to keep going, keep fighting and most importantly, to keep laughing. “I have a very ‘dark’ sense of humor, so throughout my radiation treatment, I would post [on Facebook] something funny that happened to me. It was therapeutic because it showed me that no matter how dark of a day it was, that it was ok to laugh.”
Five months after her diagnosis, Danielle rang the bell on May 12, 2021, to signal her final treatment. “Ringing that bell was not just for me. It was to acknowledge the cancer center staff and my incredible medical team. Their support, knowledge, caring and amazing insight was the reason I rang the bell that day,” she said.
While no one wants a cancer diagnosis, Danielle says that spending time at the Mass General Cancer Center at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital wasn’t all bad. “The staff are all incredible. I never felt like ‘just another cancer patient.’ They made me feel special and like I was in the right place with the best care.”
She recalls how Christine Wasilewski, MD, hematology and oncology, called her on her day off to check on her and how Dr. Coppola took the time to explain everything in a way she could easily understand. “His artwork explanations were incredible!” she says. And she credits Arul Mahadevan, MD, medical director of the MGCC, as “one of the best cheerleaders a cancer patient can have.”
Danielle’s cancer was caught very early, but she strongly believes that the motto “early detection saves lives” is the reason she is here today. “I think about what would have happened if I didn’t get that mammogram – if I had put it off because of the pandemic or because I was scared – how much worse it could have been.”
While Danielle has been in remission for three years and her tumor has been removed, she still considers herself a cancer patient. She still has follow-up appointments, MRIs and mammograms, and will need to take a chemotherapy pill every day for the next 10 years. “I’m reminded of cancer every day when I see my scar, when I take my medication and every six months when I have a mammogram or an MRI,” she says. “It is not easy but knowing that I have my team ready to fight with me at the cancer center, helps me know that I am never truly alone. The cancer center staff aren’t there just to treat cancer, they are there to heal people in more ways than they know.”
“That is why the Seacoast Cancer 5K is so important. It obviously raises money to help the patients, but it is also a reminder that you are never alone when you go through cancer. It raises awareness of this incredible cancer center that we have right here in our community!” she says. “I am so honored to be the Honorary Patient for the Seacoast Cancer 5K this year. I will happily share my story if it encourages someone to get their mammogram or helps someone be less afraid while walking this journey.”
“The Seacoast Cancer 5K makes you realize how much support there is in this community and how many other people have walked this journey. It is incredibly healing.”