Looking at Oak Harbor resident Sharon Solin today, she oozes positive energy, optimistic thinking and love for the world around her. For her, nothing can keep her down — not even cancer.

It tried and lost terribly.

“At first I was afraid, but then the Lord stepped in and gave me the courage and wisdom to fight and never be bothered by cancer,” Solin said.

Solin describes discovering a lump in her right breast in 1995 and learning it was cancer as “quite a trip.”

She’d always been active in garden clubs, with Sunrise Rotary, the hospital guild, Sons of Norway and being a grandmother to her grandson, Charlie.

“It never kept me from anything,” Solin said. “Drove to Everett for chemotherapy almost ever day and I’d still go to dinner parties at night.”

Solin wasn’t about to make a career out of being a cancer fighter.

“You can’t go there, you can’t let yourself go, you have to have faith,” she said.

One in eight women will have breast cancer in their lifetime and have to have courage like Solin to fight their disease.

This month, in honor of October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Soroptimist International of Oak Harbor will launch a drive to raise $240,000 to purchase a digital mammography machine for Whidbey General’s North Whidbey Clinic in Oak Harbor.

“This technology will translate into lives saved in this community,” said Randy White, Whidbey General Hospital Diagnostic Imaging manager.

A donation in early spring of this year by Robert and June Sebo, in memory of Sebo’s first wife, and grant money obtained by the hospital, purchased digital mammography machines for the South Whidbey Clinic and for Whidbey General in Coupeville. Now more than ever, a third machine is needed for the island.

“The sheer volume of patients is impacted by the lack of a third machine,” White said. “We are definitely seeing a backlog of patients that we should be seeing sooner.”

Ideally, White said he’d like to see patients go from their screening exams to screening mammograms to, if needed, more in-depth diagnostic mammograms in a matter of days.

“Right now with the high volume of screening exams that’s just not happening in our goal time,” he said.

Drastic difference

Previously, Whidbey General utilized analog mammography machines. According to the hospital’s Web site, digital mammography differs from conventional analog mammography in how the image of the breast is viewed and also manipulated. The radiologist can magnify the images, increase or decrease the contrast and invert the black and white values while reading the images.

“It’s much clearer, the resolution is superior to analog and we’re able to detect lesions in a much earlier time period,” White said. “All of this translates into better treatment.”

The resolution digital imaging is viewed using a computer-aided detection program. The software, in a sense, is a second set of eyes to support and enhance the judgement of the radiologist.

Whidbey General is also certified as a Softer Mammogram Provider, utilizing the MammoPad breast cushion designed by a female breast surgeon.

Early detection key

As pointed out by Renee Yanke, oncology advance practice nurse and manager of the hospital’s cancer clinic, breast cancer is no longer labeled a woman’s disease. Yanke said that two percent of breast cancer patients are men. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2007 some 2,030 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among men in the United States.

The Soroptimists understand the statistics. Take a poll amongst the members and you’ll hear stories of losing aunts, cousins, mothers and friends to the disease.

“These days it’s difficult for any one person to say they haven’t been affected,” said Soroptimist member Peggy Whitford.

Soroptimist support

“Our Soroptimist club made a decision this year to challenge ourselves by adopting a monthly service project for our members to do hands-on work in our community,” said Gaye Litka, president of Soroptimist International of Oak Harbor.

Some of the club’s projects, such as the AnySoldier Program, help men and women serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and other projects, such as the Vial of Life, are for the benefit of both seniors and women.

“It seemed a natural progression that we began aspiring for a project that would have a strong impact — one that would fit the Soroptimist mission, which is to make a difference in the lives of women and girls,” Litka said. “We think the digital mammography project fits our mission perfectly.”

Already, the club has a fund that was established in 1989 to give mammograms to women who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford them. Hundreds of women without insurance or in financial need have received mammograms through this fund that continues strong today.

Joining the cause

People can also make a contribution to the drive by pledging money through the United Way. If they pick up a form at the United Way of Island County office on Bayshore Drive they can designate the funds to the Soroptimists’ mammography project.

The Oak Harbor Soroptimists have pledged a donation of $20,000. Individual donations are already coming in, including a gift of $5,000 from Bev Elvebak.

The Whidbey News-Times has pledged to support the fund drive by helping produce “poster survivor” advertisements that will be displayed all around town to introduce people to both the drive and breast cancer survivors in the community.

Carla’s Sheer Inspiration on Bayshore Drive is donating all of the funds raised from its annual Halloween costume contest amongst its staff to the mammogram effort.

“We want to reach out to other organizations, businesses, individuals, church groups and others to get their support in this endeavor,” Whitford said.

Cancer no more

As Rosalind Dailey can tell you, breast cancer doesn’t care what’s going on in your life when it invades. When Dailey’s cancer was found 12 years ago through a routine mammogram she was in the midst of being a full-time student, working part-time and also busy being a caretaker to her parents.

“At the time it completely changed my life,” Dailey said. “I immediately panicked, but I was fortunate.”

After undergoing a biopsy to confirm it was cancer she soon underwent a lumpectomy and removal of five lymph nodes. A few months of radiation followed and the maintenance drug Tomoxifen which she dropped three years ago because of its side effects.

“My cancer was only the size of a peanut. They never told me if that was with a shell or without,” she laughs.

The experience of facing cancer taught Dailey to choose what was most important in her life, both in the grand scheme and on a daily basis.

“I chose not to dwell,” she said.

Dailey is a founding member of the North Puget Sound Dragon Boat Club, with which she continues to be active.

Looking back, Dailey said she realizes what she thought was fatigue due to stress was actually the cancer. Kathi Phillips learned to not ignore the signs her body sent her.

“A lot of people say that if it hurts that’s a good sign, but that’s not necessarily true,” Phillips said.

Months of breast discomfort for Phillips led to weeks icing her chest, and then one day four years ago a mass exited her nipple.

“I knew something was wrong for a while but didn’t know what,” she said.

“At first I thought it was an infection.”

Like many other breast cancer survivors, there is no history of breast cancer in Laurie Mosolino’s family. Lung cancer took her parents, but there’s no family links to breast cancer.

“You can’t just ignore your chances of cancer because there is no family history,” White said.

The diagnosis of cancer came as a slap in the face for Phillips.

“At first it didn’t register,” she said. “It was all surreal. You’ve heard it happen to other people, but you don’t know how to handle it when it’s yourself.”

Phillips said that while she underwent treatment she went on to not only defeat cancer but have the best year ever in her real estate career.

“I received a lot of support from RE/Max where I work and from Jackie Wyatt,” she said. “Thanks to Internet, computer and telephone I was able to do it.”

Today she takes the maintenance drug Femara and the only thing keeping her from her previously active exercise habits are knees weakend by chemotherapy.

Both Phillips and Dailey suspect hormone therapy they were taking to treat the early onset of menopause contributed to the growth of their cancer.

“I know that the hormone therapy majorly helped the cancer grow,” Phillips said.

All of the women have found profound strength in their experiences.

Marlene Boe was voted most inspirational at the Whidbey Golf and Country Club.

“I came through like a champ,” she said with a smile.

Four years ago René Callies beat breast cancer and now ovarian cancer is challenging her. Once more, she’s left wondering if her treatment beat the disease.

“It’s frustrating,” she said. “I’m in limbo wondering if or when it will come back.”

“Your priorities change,” Callies said of her cancer experiences. “You definitely realize what’s important and what’s not.”