Dugan and Barbara Simmons

by Carol Crump
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 2:12 PM MDT

Barbara Simmons sat in the stands at Relay For Life last August and watched her husband Dugan and the other cancer survivors in their purple shirts circle the track.

"I'm gonna have one of those (shirts)," she promised herself, determined that this year her COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) wouldn't keep her from making at least one lap.

Barbara still is determined to walk a lap, but now it means more than being supportive of Dugan. She was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer the day after Christmas 2006.

She's just finished radiation treatment for the cancer that had spread into one of three of her lymph nodes.

"Were it not for the support of friends and family, cancer would be the most horrendous thing in the world," Barbara said.

Dugan, 72, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002. When he was growing up, people didn't talk about having cancer.

He had just lost a friend who he said "let it (the cancer) get away from him" and was in a lot of pain when he died. His mother died of bladder cancer, and a younger brother died of bladder and colon cancer last year.

"The first reaction is one of fear of what's coming," Dugan said.

The 1954 Natrona County High School graduate and his Class of 1955 wife had just inherited the job of getting out the class newsletter.

Dugan also has been secretary of the Casper Shrine Club and the Masonic Lodge for many years and plays horn with the Korein Shriners.

He decided to be open about his situation with the couple's many friends.

"They contacted me by writing or by e-mail. I found out how many of my class (members) had the same situation," he said.

Serious problems

Dugan's cancer, which was treated with radioactive seeds, "scared the pants off" his wife.

But Barbara said he was easy going and had a wonderful attitude of "I can do this -- just back off and let me do it."

Dugan said he was not prepared for the initial residual damage from the radiation, primarily blood in his urine. Now he’s cancer-free and sees his urologist for a check up once a year.

Seventy-year-old Barbara said she was naive and didn't have sense enough to be frightened of cancer.

She had been on hormone replacement therapy, and had lumps in her breasts before. Since the biopsies showed nothing, she thought she could "dodge the bullet."

Barbara credits Dr. John Tooke's nurse Mary with "jerking me up short and demanding I go" for a mammogram. This time a needle biopsy found Stage IV breast cancer.

She had surgery in late February, followed by radiation treatments. Chemotherapy was not an initial option for Barbara because of its potentially damaging effects on her COPD-compromised immune system.

She'll have her first follow-up appointment soon.

"I read all the stuff," Barbara said. "It took halfway through the radiation and being so uncomfortable to register that I had a serious problem."

The couple said there were lots of things discussed while decisions were being made about their treatment. They tried to listen for each other, and Barbara said Dugan was always with her when "we had to sit up and take notice."

Both were treated in Casper and said they have a lot of faith in the local doctors and all aspects of the medical field.

"If you're ill in Casper, Wyoming, they have pretty good people to take are of you," Dugan said.

“Not a sentence”

For now, neither of them takes time to be concerned about cancer.

"Out of sight, out of mind for the time being," Barbara said, explaining that she can't die until she finishes all of her counted cross stitch and knitting handwork projects and sees her two grandsons grown.

In addition to his work for the Shrine and his high school class, Dugan works six to seven hours a day delivering dry cleaning.

He still has the explanatory pamphlet that Dr. Tarver Bailey gave him before he started radiation treatment.

The pamphlet’s cover that sits on his dresser says, "With proper clinical treatment, cancer is a word, not a sentence."

Barbara has turned the pamphlet wording, with her own word changes, into a cross stitch quilt square. Her version says, “With caring treatment, cancer is a word, not a sentence."

This year's annual Relay For Life, an American Cancer Society fund-raising event, will be held at Kelly Walsh High School Harry Geldien Stadium on Aug. 3-4.

Teams made up of families, businesses, organizations and youth groups will take to the track at 4 p.m. Friday, and keep one member of the team walking (or running) until 2 p.m. Saturday.

To join a team or to participate by supporting team members, e-mail Amber at awatts@fib.com, or call the American Cancer Society at 235-0044.

Submit your own Stories of Hope by e-mailing them to editor@casperjournal.com, or send them to the Casper Journal, 210 S. Wolcott, Casper 82601.

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