Shelley’s story

Shelley was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 at the age of 41. She had a double mastectomy followed by aggressive chemotherapy over three months. She says that although “the chemo made me very sick I used to go swimming on my ‘not so sick' days, and it both lifted my spirits and improved the mobility in my arms.”

After her treatment she started swimming with a Hawkes Bay Masters’ swimming club. Surprised at how quickly she improved, and how positive she felt, she kept it up and started competing at national Masters Swimming meets. In 2004 she won 3 gold medals in her age group at the NZ Masters Games in Dunedin. She began to look for a for a water-based exercise programme that would help other women recovering from breast cancer, and to encourage other women to use exercise in their recovery.

Shelley discovered the YWCA Encore programme and made contact with the YWCA in Auckland, who were interested in bringing it to New Zealand. In April 2005, Shelley and two others went to Sydney to train as Encore instructors. The YWCA programme, initially just in Hawkes Bay and Auckland, has now extended throughout the country. Meanwhile, Shelley ramped up her exercise and made the jump from the water to the road. In her characteristically energetic way, Shelley chose to celebrate five years in remission by turning to her bicycle, and with her husband cycled 500km across Vietnam and Cambodia with Oxfam NZ in 2005. “My husband loves traveling and I chose this challenge as much for him as for me. It was tough for him when I was diagnosed - as it always is for family members – but he was a great support throughout.”

Shelley took her own fitness and celebration of life a step further, and raised funds on her own for the Encore programme. This involved getting sponsorship for completing a number of “challenges” that she undertook over the 2005/06 summer including the 160km Taupo Cycle Challenge and several triathlons.

Shelley is now looking forward to celebrating ten years in remission in 2010. “Over the past 9+ years I have kept active by swimming & cycling and I'm sure that's helped to keep me in remission. Studies in the US have shown that exercise can improve your outcome by as much as 50%. Not many people know just what a difference exercise can make,” she says.

“Because a ten year anniversary is pretty special I have decided to take on a new challenge – I’m going to run the New Plymouth marathon on the 6th of March 2010!“

This time Shelley will raise money for CanTeen – she’s aiming to raise $3700 to send a recovered CanTeen member to Outward Bound. You can read more at her website: http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/ShelleyHanna/

“I’ve spent several years working with breast cancer patients through the Encore programme and I’d love to see more dialogue and information sharing between the different cancer groups. There is a lot of competition between them for the funding dollar, but they all exist to benefit cancer patients in some way. I hope I can help in some small way by working with CanTeen over the next few months.”

To read more about Shelley’s amazing journey through breast cancer and afterwards, read her book Sink or Swim, published by Harper Collins 2009.

(This version of Shelley’s story is adapted from an article by Sue Claridge and Shelley Hanna in Upfront 65, Feb/March 2006 and excerpts from Shelley’s website).

Shelley’s story

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