Sister’s love spawns new cancer benefit

SANDPOINT – Jenny Meyers and Julie Walkington are grateful for the bonds of sisterhood.

They have always been close, somehow exempt from the big spats many sisters experience, even when Jenny was a senior at Sandpoint High School and Julie was a freshman.

Both recognized being sisters meant “someone always having your back” and “a friendship that is always there,” they said. But when Jenny was diagnosed with breast cancer at 26, the term “sister” became loaded with more fervor than ever.

“In my mind, (the sister relationship) just intensified,” said Julie, a registered nurse at Bonner General Hospital, where she sees people affected by cancer every day, including her only sister. The unkind reality of cancer struck her personally when she saw the physical effects on Jenny. Jenny was one of Julie’s patients during a night shift after her first mastectomy.

“You feel helpless. As a family member, you want to do something for them. I thought, ‘What can I do that would not only benefit my sister, but other community members as well,’ ” Julie said.

That question was the motivation behind the first “Celebrate Life Walk/Run.” The younger sister hopes it will become an annual fund-raiser for Community Cancer Services, an organization that provides cancer patients in the Sandpoint area with reference materials, wigs and transportation to treatments.

Jenny prefers not to wear a wig; instead a pink sunhat covers her baldness. More than a giveaway that she’s back on chemotherapy, the small brimmed hat is a sign that underneath is a woman with a story.

“Everything was perfect at that point,” said Jenny of her life before cancer. Always healthy and active, with no family history of cancer, the diagnosis came as a shock to Jenny, her family and her husband of two years, Jeff Meyers. More than that, it was a scare to the parents of their first unborn daughter. Jenny was two months pregnant.

Going ahead with aggressive treatment, doctors initially recommended terminating the pregnancy to save Jenny’s own life. When the baby continued to grow healthy, and after further research, the decision was made to maintain the pregnancy as long as possible. Jenny was not fighting for one life; she was fighting for two, proceeding with chemo treatments and a mastectomy.

“I actually think she saved my life,” Jenny said of her baby, Grace. “She is what made me eat, rest, take my medication.”

Julie calls Grace a miracle and the reason behind her sister’s fight for life.

Life, in all its ambiguity, is something the sisters have learned not to take for granted.

“When someone you love, especially a family member, is faced with this, you value things more. Every little thing you do together, every day you spend together,” said Julie. “You appreciate the people in your life so much more.”

Both sisters share this attitude, even now as Jenny’s cancer came back after being in remission. She’s back on chemo causing the loss of her hair. The goal is to keep the cancer at bay, as it is now advanced and no longer localized to the chest. Jenny has her good days and she has her bad days (which she describes like a really bad hangover), when Julie is always there with a goody basket, just as she was there with Jenny when she learned of her diagnosis for the first time.

“I have more good days than I do bad,” she says as her eyes drift over to Grace, hoping for good days of taking her to kindergarten and seeing her walk down the aisle. For a moment, the uncertainty is present, but Jenny’s overwhelming strength puts a genuine smile on her freckled face as she explains, “Faith, family and friends. That’ll keep a girl going.”

Grace and Riley, Julie’s daughter, seem almost sisters with their blonde hair and vivacious, giddy 3-year-old demeanors. They may only be cousins, but Grace and Riley are close enough to feel the bonds of sisterhood themselves. And with Jenny and Julie as their mothers, they have the ideal sisterly example before them, modeling love, friendship, laughter and care.

Celebrate Life is what Julie calls a “continuation of care.” With liberal help and support from Bonner General and its staff, the vision Julie had to help her sister and other community members like her became a reality.