A North Carolina woman who was diagnosed with deadly cancer despite feeling in top physical condition is urging people not to ignore changes in their body.
Holly Shawyer was training for a marathon in May 2023 when she was hit with severe stomach pains that she understandably dismissed as an illness.
Doctors thought it was just a stomach ulcer, but Shawyer’s pain became so severe she was forced to withdraw from the marathon. She refused and sought medical help.
Further scans revealed a grapefruit-sized tumor in the tail of her pancreas, and in December she was diagnosed with stage 1 pancreatic cancer, the third-deadliest cancer in the United States.
Holly Shawyer, 35, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year despite being in top shape and training for a marathon.
“I’ve always been health conscious, watching what I eat and exercising regularly. I rarely get sick, maybe a bout of gastroenteritis every few years,” Shawyer says.
“When I was diagnosed in my 30s, it felt like a big pause button had been pressed on my life,” the maths teacher said. “I was in great health prior to my diagnosis.”
But Shawyer is one of the lucky few to have been diagnosed with stage 1 cancer, before it spreads and becomes incurable.
Pancreatic cancer kills eight in 10 patients within five years, but it is often called the “silent killer” because in most cases the disease is discovered at an advanced stage without causing any symptoms.
At stages three and four, the disease is virtually untreatable, with only a 3% chance of survival. At stage one, however, survival is 15 times higher, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
While the exact cause of the disease remains largely unknown, the diagnosis came as yet another shock to Shawyer, who maintained a healthy lifestyle and avoided risk factors such as smoking.
Doctors believe her prognosis is much better than most patients with the disease, which has given her “great hope.”
She added: “I’ve always been health conscious, watching what I eat and exercising regularly. I rarely get sick, maybe a bout of gastroenteritis once every few years.”
Now she urges others to get tested at the first sign of a problem and not put off important treatment.
Shawyer underwent 12 chemotherapy treatments, each of which involved a day in the hospital followed by 46 hours of chemotherapy at home.
Although she was “mentally prepared” for the diagnosis, because doctors had told her there was a one-in-three chance the tumor was cancerous, she said, “I don’t think I was prepared for how it and chemotherapy would affect me.”
Shawyer is one of millions of young, healthy Americans whose lives have been put on hold by a cancer diagnosis, despite avoiding smoking, drinking and unhealthy eating habits.
“It was really hard at times to go through such physically demanding treatment and then feel like I was missing out on life,” she said.
“During my treatment, friends got engaged, got pregnant, got promoted, had babies. I never knew when these things would happen to me, so it was really hard to juggle between feeling happy and celebrating for my friends and feeling sad for myself.”
Most pancreatic cancer is diagnosed after it has spread, meaning survival rates are low, but Shawyer is one of a small minority of patients with stage 1 disease, which means there is a 44 percent chance of survival.
Shawyer is now cancer-free and working to accomplish her bucket list. “The biggest thing I’ve learned from this experience is to make the most of the time you have while you have it,” she said.
Shawyer was diagnosed with cancer in July and doctors are closely monitoring her to make sure it doesn’t come back, but she points out that life isn’t the same as it was before her diagnosis.
“Just because I’m ‘cancer cured’ or treatment is over doesn’t mean my life will automatically go back to normal,” she says. “Even after a month, I still have a lot of side effects from chemotherapy, like hair loss and neuropathy in my hands and feet.”
“When you’re in treatment, you’re kind of in survival mode and you can just focus on getting through the physical aspect.”
“Now that I’m out of treatment, I feel like I can finally start to deal with the emotional and mental toll this has taken on me.”
Shawyer is now working on her bucket list because of her “strong desire to not waste a moment”, and encourages others to be “their own biggest advocate” when it comes to their health.
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned from all of this is to take advantage of the time you have while you have it,” she said.
