Dennis’s Story of Survival and Service

Dennis Siemsen at the 3-day

Dennis and his wife, Elaine, at the 2024 Susan G. Komen 3-Day.

When Dennis S. was 42, he faced something no husband or father expected: a breast cancer diagnosis. 

“I started noticing nipple discharge,” Dennis recalled. “That was in 1993, and it went on for almost two years before I did something about it. I was playing basketball a lot and when I’d take an elbow to the chest, they’d start to weep and wet my shirt.”  

His doctors initially thought the symptoms Dennis was experiencing might have been a hormonal issue and referred him to an endocrinologist. But when that was ruled out, Dennis was examined by another physician who discovered a lump and ordered a mammogram and then a biopsy.  

“At that time, my doctor was a young guy in his thirties. I was his first male breast cancer patient,” Dennis, now 74, said. “We were both shocked.”

Dennis underwent a mastectomy but was fortunate not to need chemotherapy or radiation. After surgery, Dennis chose to keep his diagnosis private.  

“I didn’t even tell my closest friends,” he said. “And I never took my shirt off at the pool. I’d say it was because I had red hair and burned easily. I think part of it was, if a woman saw me, I didn’t want my scar to make her feel uncomfortable.” 

Several years later Dennis’s wife, Elaine, connected with the Susan G. Komen 3-Day®. She was looking for a meaningful cause to support and signed up to walk in the Twin Cities. Dennis said he dropped her off at the 3-Day and picked her up when it was over. 

“After the walk, she was so excited and effusive,” Dennis said. “She told me about her experience and about the route safety guys on their bikes and motorcycles. She said, ‘You’ve got to join.’” 

An avid cyclist, Dennis was intrigued. He said he wasn’t sure how to get involved so he went out of his comfort zone.  

“It was hard to break into that group because they had their usual team of people. So, I decided to play the ‘survivor card’ and told them I was a breast cancer survivor. Well, that worked,” Dennis chuckled. “And they said, ‘We’d love to have you!’” 

That moment in 2012 was the start of Dennis’s connection to the 3-Day community. He still rides with the Route Safety team to help keep walkers safe, but this year he is taking time off to recover from two knee replacements. Dennis has found another way to support the 3-Day though. Since retiring, Dennis and Elaine spend the winters living in an RV resort in Arizona. Dennis offers free bike repairs to his neighbors and asks for donations to the 3-Day instead of payment.  

“For a long time, I hardly told anyone of my history with breast cancer. It wasn’t like I was embarrassed, I just thought no one needed to know,” Dennis said. “Now I share it because other men need to know that they can get breast cancer, too.” 

 

 

A Decade Later: How One Mother Honors Her Daughter by Walking the 3-Day

Joyce Laws (center) and her family at the Susan G. Komen 3-Day in San Diego.

This year marks a decade since Joyce L.s  daughter died from breast cancer. To honor her memory, Joyce will return to the  Susan G. Komen 3-Day®, a place that holds bittersweet memories.  

“She said to me, ‘Mom, when I get through all this, let’s do this,’” Joyce recalled. “We always planned to do a 3-Day together.”

Jennifer was just 31 when she found a lump in her breast in 2009. Around the same time, she learned she was pregnant. Her doctor advised waiting a month to monitor the lump, but a second trimester biopsy confirmed Jennifer had stage 2b lobular breast cancer. She was carrying twins, but heartbreakingly, only one would survive.

Jennifer was pregnant with twins when she was diagnosed with lobular breast cancer.

Despite the devastating news, Jennifer’s resilience kept her moving forward. Doctors removed 23 lymph nodes, 22 of which were cancerous. She had a mastectomy to remove her left breast, and later had another mastectomy to remove the other breast. She also had her ovaries removed due to her estrogen-positive diagnosis. 

Through it all, Jennifer remained hopeful. She gave birth to her daughter, Maya, who was healthy and born with a full head of hair despite Jennifer undergoing chemotherapy while pregnant 

“My daughter had no hair from chemo when Maya was born, but that little girl had a head full of black hair. It just proves that the placenta takes care of the baby,” Joyce said. 

After Maya’s birth, Jennifer continued chemotherapy and was ecstatic when scans showed no evidence of cancer. Jennifer returned to work as a physical therapist, traveled to India with her husband and daughter, and continued to advocate for herself and raise awareness about breast cancer. Jennifer formed a team, Warriors for Jen, and raised money for the Komen San Diego Race for The Cure® (now the San Diego MORE THAN PINK Walk®). She organized a pizza night fundraiser and comedy event that raised over $6,000. 

“No matter how devastating what she was going through was, she was always looking on the bright side,” Joyce said. “She wanted to be out there and helping others.”

But in 2012, the cancer returned and metastasized (spread) to her spine. Jennifer refused to give up. She joined a clinical trial, kept her positive attitude, and enjoyed watching her little girl swim and ride her bike.  

Jennifer and her daughter, Maya, swimming.

When Jennifer’s breast cancer progressed and she couldn’t walk the 3-Day, she still wanted to show up to offer her support. One of her friends walked the 3-Day and Jennifer made sure she was at the finish line to congratulate her. That inspired Joyce to take the first steps they’d planned to walk together. 

 “Things appeared to be a little shaky, so I decided to do it myself. I signed up as a single walker but ended up joining the Powered by Optimism team. They embodied everything Jennifer stood for,” Joyce said. “I am still on that team to this day.” 

Joyce has walked in 13 events across San Diego, Boston, Chicago and Denver. She carried the “Daughter” flag in her first 3-Day walk in 2014 with Jennifer watching nearby. A few weeks after Jennifer passed away in October 2015, Joyce completed the 3-Day in San Diego.  

“That was the hardest walk. But the Pink Bubble community has been part of my healing process,” Joyce said. “They’ve really been there for me.” 

Now 71, Joyce continues to walk in the San Diego 3-Day and hopes to inspire the next generation to join her. Walking alongside Joyce are her son and niece, other family members, friends and her granddaughter, Maya, who is almost 16.  

Maya, who has served on the Youth Corps three times, will walk her first 3-Day this year. 

“I know Jennifer would be standing on the sidelines cheering for us all, especially Maya. She would be so happy to see her daughter at the 3-Day,” Joyce said.  

Joyce and her granddaughter, Maya, at the Susan G. Komen 3-Day in San Diego.

In honor of Jennifer’s 10-year anniversary, Joyce is setting her fundraising goal at $10,000 – the same amount Jennifer challenged her to raise in 2015.  

“I told her that was a lot, but she said, ‘You can do it mom.’” Joyce recalled. “And that year I did. I managed to raise over $10,000. So, this year, I’m doing it again, for her.” 

 

 

Memory of a Mother: Mary Beth & Nicole

How would you describe your mother in just one word? If Mary Beth Nardoni had to be described in just one word, it would be kind. “She was a Special Ed teacher, and she had a heart of absolute gold. She started a Brownie troop for Special Ed students, because nobody else had the time to put it together. She got all of the uniforms donated, because most of the parents couldn’t afford them. At Christmas time, she made sure others had before we did. She would give you the shirt off her back,” said her daughter, Nicole.

It was 1998 when Mary Beth found a lump in her breast. “My mom said to me, ‘Cole, I feel something. And the crazy part is, I know it’s cancer.’” Because she didn’t have health insurance, Mary Beth couldn’t go to the doctor until several months later, where it was confirmed that her hunch was right: Mary Beth had breast cancer.

A deeply private person, Mary Beth didn’t want to concern herself with numbers, stages, or statistics. By the time she received treatment and had surgery to remove the tumor and her lymph nodes, the cancer had spread to a stage four. Yet Mary Beth refused to let her cancer get her down. “It’s just cancer, it doesn’t matter,” she would say, continually battling the disease with her head held high. Mary Beth battled for years, going in and out of remission.

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Mary Beth, throughout the years. Photos courtesy of Nicole Hercules

When Nicole was getting ready to leave for a long awaited vacation in Cancun, she heard that her mother wasn’t doing well after a procedure and considered cancelling her trip. When Mary Beth got wind of this, she quickly checked herself out of the hospital, told Nicole she was fine, and sent Nicole on her trip. As soon as Nicole was out of the country, Mary Beth checked herself back in to the hospital. She refused to let her illness affect her daughter’s vacation, later saying, “Don’t worry about me. It’s just cancer, and I didn’t want you to miss your trip.”

In March of 2004, Mary Beth fell down in a parking lot and broke her arm. She had been told she was in remission, but didn’t continue receiving scans as she didn’t have health insurance. When she broke her arm, she had bone scans and it was discovered that the cancer was back. Nicole flew to Oklahoma on April 1, and that’s when she learned her mother was dying. “On April 19 at 7:30 pm, I told the doctors to administer the morphine. On April 20, she passed away and I was there to hold her hand. I told her that I loved her. She gave me the greatest gift that day – because she was there to see me take my first breath, and I was there to see her last.”

It took Nicole a few years to heal, and she participated in her first Komen event, the Chicago Race for the Cure, in 2009. In 2010, she did her first 3-Day walk in Chicago. In 2011, she walked the 3-Day in Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth, and then in 2013, Nicole’s dad passed away of lung cancer. The tragic loss of both of her parents prompted Nicole to walk all seven 3-Day events in 2014, and she was invited to speak at the Opening Ceremony about how cancer has personally affected her family.

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Nicole speaks at Opening Ceremony in a 2014 3-Day

Nicole’s sister was diagnosed with breast cancer in January, 2015. Her sister was HER2 positive, and is now in remission. Her sister will now be tested for the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 gene, and then Nicole can be tested, as well. (Insurance stipulations sometimes require positive test results from an immediate family member before the expensive test is covered.) Despite still waiting for the BRCA gene test, Nicole took preventative measures. “I became a previvor with a prophylactic double mastectomy on June 1st 2015. We lost an aunt to Ovarian cancer, and with my family, it was just too much.”

“It hasn’t been easy, choosing to have them taken off. I’ve had four surgeries, and necrosis, and a bunch of other stuff, but you know what? I’d take this any day over cancer.”

When faced with unimaginable loss, Nicole chose to stay and fight. In the past eight years, she has raised over $41,000 through the 3-Day, funding dozens of life-saving treatments and ground-breaking research. “I don’t do this because I think it’s fun or cute. I don’t do this to wear a pink tutu around town. That’s not why I do what I do. I do what I do so that my children will never have to hear, ‘you have breast cancer.’”

And that’s exactly why we do what we do, Nicole; so that you, your children, our children, our aunts, our mothers, our fathers, our friends, our sisters, or our brothers never have to hear, “you have breast cancer.”

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This Mother’s Day, make the commitment to helping us end breast cancer forever. If you’re a first-time walker, use the code BYB16 by May 9th to receive a free round trip plane ticket to the 3-Day. If you last walked between 2008 and 2014, you may also be eligible for free airfare by using code SPRING16. Check your 3-Day email for details. You can also change your profile picture on your social media accounts to support moms everywhere, via Susan G. Komen. Click here to try it now.