PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Arizona with more than 5,000 new cases every year.
One Valley healthcare provider knows that all too well after her own battle with the disease she’s dedicated her life to treating.
It was a shock for Maureen Hamel-Schwartz to go from helping breast cancer patients to becoming one. She’s delivered that life-changing diagnosis to countless women over the years, but said nothing could have prepared her to face it herself.
“I wear this coat. It doesn’t mean that I can’t get cancer,” she said.
Accepting that reality wasn’t easy for Hamel-Schwartz. For more than two decades, the physician assistant has diagnosed women with breast cancer.
“It was terrifying,” said Hamel-Schwartz, a physician assistant at Optum. “Never thought it would be me.”
But in 2023, she unexpectedly found herself on the other side.
“It hit me out of nowhere. Never in a million years did I think I’m going to get breast cancer. I have no risk factors. Well guess what, it’s like 60% of people diagnosed don’t have any of the known risk factors,” said Hamel-Schwartz.
In an instant, everything changed. First, she underwent chemotherapy and then surgery, and radiation.
“One day I went to comb my hair and all of a sudden it’s just coming out in piles,” she said.
Once the worst of it was over, Hamel-Schwartz couldn’t wait to get back to work.
“Just change my mindset from cancer, cancer, cancer and me getting treated, to I want to go start helping people again,” said Hamel-Schwartz.
Now, she feels like new person. She relates to her patients in a way only fellow survivors can understand.
“What it does to you is, no one really knows it until they go through it,” said Hamel-Schwartz. “I tell them I’ve been on the journey. I’m going to be here to help you through your journey,”
If Hamel-Schwartz could go back in time, she’d do things differently and take her own advice by focusing on prevention.
She regrets letting busy life get in the way of keeping up with routine self-breast exams and mammograms.
“I have stage three cancer and it was a good size tumor. And I wish I would have gotten my mammogram on time and could have caught it early,” said Hamel-Schwartz.
The threat of the cancer coming back is always on Hamel-Schwartz’s mind, but her personal experience shifted her perspective and strengthened her sense of purpose.
“I just want to be able to help other people as much as I can going through it, for them to know they’re not alone,” she said.
Her main message for others is to never miss vital screening appointments. The American Cancer Society recommends yearly mammograms for women starting at age 45 and even younger for those that are high-risk.
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