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Time to invest in new knee-pads |
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Monday, 30 April 2007 |
3-time cancer survivor inspired by prayer
By KAREN CAMPBELL
Staff Writer
Every morning when Freda Bowersock sits down at the kitchen table for her first cup of coffee, she reads the words on a plaque her niece gave her.
“I know God never gives me more than I can handle. Sometimes I just wish he didn’t trust me so much,” the plaque says.
The Wapakoneta woman, who just celebrated her 70th birthday in February, has been diagnosed with cancer three times and says the key to survival is faith in God, a will to live and family support.
“If you have those things, you can defeat any circumstances,” said Bowersock, who was first diagnosed with cancer 17 years ago.
Physicians diagnosed her with cancer again eight years later and for the third time a year ago.
“Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma is a funny kind of cancer, they can pop up anytime,” Bowersock said. “We all carry around a certain amount of cancer cells. For me, it seems when I get anxious or stressful it comes.”
Bowersock lives in the same house on State Route 67 where she was born and raised. The only time she was not in the house was when she studied religious education at college in Michigan.
Retired five years ago as a bookkeeper for a Jackson Center business, Bowersock said she stays busy selling Avon.
“I love it. I love being around people,” said Bowersock, who is known by her clients as having a warm smile, happy nature and compassion for others.
She lives with and cares for her two sisters, Violet, 82, and Alice, 68. She attends church, grows a small garden, and loves spending time with her extended family of nieces and nephews.
She also stays busy volunteering for the Relay for Life of Greater Auglaize County. After approximately eight years of walking and participating as a team member, this year Bowersock is serving as team captain for the Wapakoneta Church of the Nazarene, which she has been a member of for the past 24 years.
Bowersock, who was first diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 1990, thought she pulled a groin muscle. A couple weeks later she underwent eight weeks of radiation for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Seventeen years later, she said still recalls the uneasy feeling she had when she walked into the physician’s office and the way the physician told her the news.
Bowersock, who worked third shift at the time, attended her appointment Thursday morning. She kept going to work at night, but it was five days before she slept again.
“I did a whole lot of praying, but not much sleeping,” Bowersock said. “I prayed a while, I cried a while.”
Bowersock, who had five brothers and four sisters, was less concerned for herself and more concerned for her siblings, especially two sisters with health problems, for which she helps with their care.
“I asked God for at least 25 more years to make sure the girls were taken care of,” Bowersock said. “I wanted to make sure I was around for my sisters.”
Feeling her prayer was answered, Bowersock said she was finally able to roll over and go to sleep. Despite her daily radiation treatments, she kept going to work each night and made the best of the time she had been given.
Bowersock beat the cancer that time, but it wasn’t the end of her battle against the disease.
She was diagnosed with lymphoma in her left breast in 1998 and then discovered a lump, which ended up being Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma again, around her collarbone in March 2006.
She received chemotherapy for both subsequent bouts of cancer. A check-up a week ago revealed that everything is fine, and Bowersock does not have to return to her family doctor for six months.
Despite the news, Bowersock keeps a close eye on her health, paying careful attention to even small changes in her body. Her first cancer was discovered after checking on a pain, her second with a mammogram, and her third by watching changes in a bump.
With a family history full of cancer, Bowersock said she is not only helping herself fight the disease, but offering support and encouragement to her siblings, several of which also have been diagnosed with cancer, too.
Despite her own struggles with the disease, including losing her hair twice, Bowersock considers herself lucky and sees her purpose to help others through where she’s been.
“Why walk around with a long face?” Bowersock said. “Take the lumps in life and do the best you can. I tire out easily, but sometimes I forget I’m 70 years old. You just can’t let it get to you. I want to be as happy-go-lucky as I can be. There are days when it bothers me more than usual, but I put my faith in God and drive down the road smiling and waving at people.”
“It can be easy to ask ‘Why am I going through all this again Lord?’ but I trust him,” she said. “I never doubted God even though I’ve had cancer two times since I asked for his help. I was not going to turn away just because I have cancer. It is a big opportunity for me to witness to others.”
Bowersock said she first got involved with the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life because she wanted to offer support to her family and others who have faced cancer diagnoses.
“I look forward to relay,” Bowersock said. “When you look around you, during the survivors’ lap, at all the people walking around with those survivor shirts on, you’re just amazed. And then there are those who didn’t make it. I do it in honor of them, too.
“I’ve known several who have passed away this year,” she said. “When you go to the doctor’s office and see someone’s name down for treatment and then you see their name in the paper, it makes you really appreciate every new day.” |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 May 2007 )
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