When Kristin Sad noticed a lump in her right breast in June 2017, she was not surprised that the diagnosis would be cancer. Her maternal aunts had gotten the same diagnosis when they reached their 60s, the same age when Kristin noticed her lump. Within a few days, a mammogram imaged the lump and a biopsy with a clinical diagnosis of stage 2 breast cancer confirmed Kristin’s suspicion.

It’s like coming home.

Trumansburg native Richard ‘Dick’ Austic has lived with cancer since 1996 when he received his first of what would become four diagnoses of cancer during the next 20 years. Richard was an animal science professor with an emphasis on poultry nutrition at Cornell University until he retired about 10 years ago. During the 1995 fall semester, he developed abdominal pain, found standing difficult, and lost about 50 pounds. At the end of the semester, he saw his physician who detected occult blood in a fecal sample. A CT scan revealed a large tumor on his colon, and Richard had surgery at Cayuga Medical Center later that day. Following his recovery from surgery, Richard had six weeks of radiation therapy and received chemotherapy treatments over the next 12 months at Cayuga Medical Center. Several years of follow-up care and tests confirmed the aggressive treatment was successful.

Beth Brunelle had just marked her 35th birthday in 2008 when she got her double diagnosis for both uterine and ovarian cancer.