Cancer survivor to get married at Backus event
Sharon Kantzios plans to bring her message of hope to Cancer Survivors Day in a unique way - by getting married at the event.
"I originally wanted to get married on Oct. 12, which would mark one year since my diagnosis with breast cancer," she said. "But we were joking about getting married at Cancer Survivors Day on Oct. 4, and then decided to ask if we could."
The date also happens to be her sister's 10th wedding anniversary. Her sister, who is a lung cancer survivor, plans to attend the event. Ms. Kantzios met Ron Gideon, her fiancé, a year before her diagnosis and just got engaged in August. From attending a breast cancer support group, she heard stories of spouses or partners not being supportive.
"I want to show people even though a diagnosis can be devastating, there can be positive sides too," she said. "Ron makes me laugh and he really has been there for me through it all."
Since being diagnosed last October, Ms. Kantzios had a lumpectomy and a few nodes removed. She then underwent chemotherapy and radiation. She is taking Herceptin infusion treatments and is about halfway through the treatment. She said she is counting the days to her one year mammogram, which she hopes will have clear margins.
"Mentally I am doing well, but I do get fatigued," she said. Ms. Kantzios works fulltime at Miranda Creative, Inc., an advertising and marketing design company based in Norwich.
The creative director and owner of the company, Maria Miranda, is also a justice of the peace and will be performing the ceremony. "I chose Maria because she has been very supportive of me throughout the process, even bringing in Laura Stevenson-Flom, Executive Director of ECHO Foundation to talk with my coworkers about how to handle the emotions of working with someone going through cancer," she said.
From her original diagnosis through her treatment, Ms. Kantzios has dealt with many different staff, nurses and doctors at Backus. "The people at Backus have just been great, it really has been a good experience with them," she said.
Her oncologist is Dinesh Kapur, MD and her surgeon was Mark Tramontozzi, MD, and she said both of them communicated well with her and with each other about her treatment options.