Zara

Zara
Diagnosed age 57, 2-year survivor
Y-ME Counselor and Advocate

"I have learned that I have a responsibility as a breast cancer survivor to share my journey and let people know what I have learned about living with this disease."

Zara always got her regular annual mammogram, so when she found a lump in her breast just a few months after getting a normal result, she "brushed it off." The lump didn't go away, though, and not long after she began to feel tired and rundown. Her primary physician didn't think the lump looked suspicious, but sent her to a surgeon to have it evaluated.

Zara had Triple Negative Breast Cancer. She underwent a mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy. It was tough. She experienced "great fatigue," and the hair loss that she thought she was prepared for "broke her heart." But she got through it. Throughout her diagnosis and treatment, Zara kept herself well informed about her cancer. She tried to understand what was happening and prepare herself for what was to come. She didn't call Y-ME, though, because she was afraid to pick up the phone and make the call, and she didn't talk to her family and friends much about what she was experiencing.

There was a point, however, that Zara realized that she wanted to help people who were going through what she had, and that is when she decided to become a Y-ME counselor.

"I realized that I had been suffering in silence, that I should have reached out and talked to someone who knew what I was going through. I had to get out of the prison I had locked myself into. I really do have a responsibility as a survivor to share what I have learned."

Zara took her mission to a new level in 2011. Her husband, sons and daughters-in-law persuaded her to enter the Mrs. Illinois pageant. At first she pooh-poohed the idea, thinking that she was too old, but slowly the plan took root. For one of the events, she and her daughters-in-law devised a special costume. Zara went as a Monarch butterfly, signifying the transformation that she had gone through in her life.

She won the title. Zara is Mrs. Illinois, 2011.

"I want to take that title and show people that there is life after breast cancer. I know why I am here. I know there is a purpose in my life, that I can be a voice for survivorship, and have a chance to affect someone else's life. I am happy and thankful for that opportunity."