Rebecca Barrons says timing is everything.
The Sarnia woman and mom of six had just joined an online community of women during the pandemic — supporting each other with everything from makeup to motherhood.
When one of them mentioned their own breast cancer story, it reminded Barrons she hadn’t done a self-check in a while.
That night, she felt a mass in her right breast. She called her doctor the next day and was immediately booked in for tests.
She had a mammogram on March 18, 2021, and says she just knew it wasn’t good.
The diagnosis came shortly after: Stage 3, HER2-Positive breast cancer. She was just 38.
“It was fast growing, and fast spreading,” Barrons said. “Another few weeks and I would have been stage 4. It would have been in my bones, it would have been everywhere.”
“If I didn’t meet those women, and hear their stories — I wouldn’t have checked,” she added.
Barrons began a gruelling schedule of chemotherapy— alone at Bluewater Health, where pandemic restrictions were still in place. The beloved local hairstylist was unable to work, and life changed drastically for the whole family: Barrons, her husband, four sons, stepson and stepdaughter.
“You just do it, you know?” Barrons said, adding she had overwhelming support from friends and family. “You’re just in this warrior mode…you’re in the fight to survive.”
The kids took turns cutting her hair off, they all shaved their heads, and Barrons got wigs in every colour.
When it came time for surgery to remove the cancer, Barrons was looking ahead to the future. Unfortunately, the news wasn’t good.
“The cancer grew back,” she recalls. “The chemo had shrunk it, but in that time between [chemo and surgery] it grew back. Then I got the bad news that I had to go back on chemo for the entire year.
“It was really hard,” she said fighting back tears. “I missed out on a lot, and that’s the hardest part for me. I feel guilty because I missed so much…it’s just such a short period of time when they’re young.”
Then came the radiation — daily drives to London for nearly a month in December 2021.
“When you think you have it bad, there’s always somebody that has it worse — radiation was very eye opening for me,” she said. “A lot of people were just there to make it past Christmas; they knew they were dying.
“So in my mind I’m like — what am I complaining about, right?”
Barrons did her best to stay positive, but the roadblocks persisted: radiation burns, mouth sores, allergic reactions, and an infected chest chemo port that saw her rushed to Windsor hospital on her 40th birthday.
In total, she underwent nine surgeries — including a double mastectomy, and breast reconstruction.
Then in January 2024, Barrons found herself in excruciating pain; a pneumonia infection had made its way to her chest — and was so severe, she was rushed to surgery, again.
“They had to remove it all,” she said of the reconstruction work. “I lost everything.”
Through it all, Barrons has tried her best to stay positive; she loves her local breast cancer support group, she’s in counselling, is back to work, and is finding purpose in sharing her story.
She also knows a growing number of local women being diagnosed in their 30s and 40s.
In October, Bluewater Health will begin offering breast cancer screening to eligible patients ages 40-49 thanks to a recent expansion from Ontario Health, Cancer Care Ontario (CCO).
“It’s so important to advocate for yourself… cancer doesn’t pick and choose,” said Barrons. “I was so lucky and so blessed that my doctor listened to me, and acted fast.”
And now, the healing begins, she said.
“I’m two years out of chemo, and I know the chance of recurrence is higher,” she said. “It’s hard when you get sick — even just a cold — not to go down that rabbit hole. You always worry. I’ve met a lot of women that haven’t made it.”
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in Ontario, and 13% of cases are in the 40-49 age group. Early detection can result in a five-year survival rate approaching 100 per cent.
“I don’t go around saying I’m cancer free… but I am a survivor. I survived hell,” Barrons said, pointing to that group of women who, she says, saved her life. Now it’s her turn to help save others.
“I feel like things happen, people come in your lives when they’re supposed to,” she said. “Helping other women is healing me.”